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Asian trading partners have reassured Australia that the “normal supply” of fuel will continue amid the Middle East conflict, as the government prepares to intensify efforts to avert shortages of petrol and diesel.

The federal government has been chasing supply guarantees from countries including Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan as the Iran war and closure of the strait of Hormuz wreaks havoc on the global oil market.

Australia imports about 90% of its refined fuel, much of which is sourced from Asian refineries, meaning it is highly vulnerable if other countries take emergency steps to prioritise stocks for domestic use.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, the assistant foreign minister, Matt Thistlethwaite, said government ministers from Japan and South Korea provided assurances that “normal supply” will continue during meetings in the past week.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has already signed a joint statement on two-way energy trade with Singapore, which supplies about 55% of Australia’s petrol imports and 15% of diesel.

The Nightly last week reported that preparations were underway for the prime minister to travel to Singapore after the Easter break to help shore up Australia’s fuel supplies.

The prime minister’s office would not confirm if a trip was planned but sources said Albanese’s attention over the coming period, including travel plans, would be focused on fuel security.

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, said refined fuel was now being sourced from countries including the US and Mexico as petrol and diesel suppliers diversify their supply chains.

A host of Asian nations are major buyers of Australian liquefied natural gas, which the government has been using as leverage in talks over fuel supplies.

The delicate negotiations could cause the government to put off introducing a new windfall profit tax on gas companies, which the treasury was asked to model ahead of the 12 May budget.

Japan and South Korea, in particular, have consistently opposed policies that they claim could disrupt LNG exports – including new taxes.

The Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is planning to travel to Australia in coming weeks to discuss rare earths and efforts to re-open the strait of Hormuz, Nikkei Asia reported on Saturday.

Asked about a gas profits tax at the National Press Club last Thursday, Albanese signalled the government’s priority was consolidating its reputation as a reliable gas exporter to help strengthen its case to continue receiving fuel supplies.

“That’s the quid pro quo, if you like. And I think that is very important as we go forward. So, to be clear, our first priority is supply. Supply depends upon those relationships being adhered to,” the prime minister said.

Labor last week supported a Greens motions to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the taxation regime for oil and gas companies, giving advocates fresh cause to believe the government was open to the change.

The inquiry is due to report on 7 May – five days before the budget.

Several government sources confirmed a final decision on a new gas tax was yet to be made.

The US military searched on a second day for a pilot shot down over a remote area in Iran, while Trump reminded Iran of his deadline in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

Trump’s latest threat came after a strike near an Iranian nuclear power plant prompted evacuations, and as Tehran announced fresh attacks and the Israeli military said it had detected another missile launch from Yemen. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they hit a commercial ship in Bahrain, as they maintained their tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane and continued to strike economic targets in their Gulf neighbours they see as linked to the US-Israeli war effort. 

The economic strikes are also going the other way. An Israeli or US strike on a petrochemical hub in the southwest of Iran killed five people, according to the deputy governor of Khuzestan province.  

The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering a retaliation that has spread the conflict throughout the Middle East and convulsed the global economy — particularly due to the closure of the strait, a vital conduit for oil and gas.

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Tehran said on Friday it had shot down an F-15 warplane and US media reported United States special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.

Iran’s military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot of that plane was rescued.

The local Mehr news agency on Saturday quoted the deputy governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Fattah Mohammadi, as saying the search for the missing pilot involved “presence of popular forces and tribesmen alongside military forces and is still ongoing”.

He added that “last night, people fired at enemy helicopters with rifles and did not allow them to land”. 

Images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV showed Iranian police firing at a US helicopter in southwestern Iran as US forces searched for the airman.

Bushehr nuclear plant

A strike near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant on Saturday killed a guard and led Russia, which partly constructed the facility and helps operate it, to announce it was evacuating 198 workers and to condemn the strike as “an evil deed”,

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the plant on the southern coast could eventually lead to radioactive fallout that would “end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran”.

Bushehr is considerably closer to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar than it is to the Iranian capital.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote on X that no increase in radiation levels had been reported at the site, but nonetheless voiced “deep concern” at what he said was the fourth such strike in recent weeks.

There were also more strikes on Tehran, where an AFP journalist saw a thick haze of grey smoke covering the skyline.

 “This war wasn’t for freedom… we just ended up trapped with something even more savage,” 31-year-old Faezeh told AFP via messenger app from Tehran.

US-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a petrochemicals hub, a cement plant and a trade terminal on the Iran-Iraq border, where one person was reported killed.

Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israel and US allies in the Gulf.

Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain on Saturday, and two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one housing the US cloud computing firm Oracle, authorities said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)