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Amid the Middle East conflict, petrol prices in Australia are rising due to supply concerns, with hundreds of drivers heading to local servos to stockpile fuel.
And while motorists are fearing the worst, further compounding the pressure is the fact that some service stations are also restricting their sales in response to the global market, as oil prices reached almost USD$120 a barrel on 9 March 2026.
In one instance, a driver posted a photo of an unspecified servo in Brisbane, telling local drivers “Sorry emergency vehicles only for diesel sales” on a Reddit thread.
The Reddit user posted the image on 8 March 2026, alongside the caption “Saw this the other day and had to double check. Surely this isn’t real?”.
Drive understands neither the Queensland Ambulance Services nor the Queensland Police Service has been affected by the issue.
Other petrol stations across the country are starting to do the same, with an ABC report earlier this week revealing some WA towns had started restricting fuel sales to prioritise emergency workers.
Despite widespread panic, some experts remain adamant the country isn’t heading for a shortage.
According to Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACAPMA) Chief Executive Rowan Lee, it's the unexpected surge in demand, coupled with other industry factors, that has led to a drastic increase in retail pricing.
"There's plenty of supply around ... what's happened here is that [people] have started to panic buy and there's been quite some erratic [buying] behaviour that's quite unprecedented," he told Drive.
Though Lee said the ACAPMA can't estimate when fuel prices will return to normal – given it is dependent on conflict resolution in the Middle East – he continued to advise drivers to remain patient and avoid buying petrol if it's not necessary.
"The best thing everyone can do is a bit like toilet paper during COVID, just buy as you normally would. There'll be petrol at the petrol stations next week, prices have come back down a little," he said.
"You normally get a spike and then a general plateau of pricing and it appears that's what's happening now."
He pointed to a couple of examples of this shift in buying behaviour leading to surging prices.
"Some farmers who normally buy [their fuel] in late March or April are buying now, and then you've got people now going to servos with jerry cans. That's not helping the situation at all."
Lee said Australia's fuel surplus was enough to sustain the country through this surge in demand, given there is 36 days' worth of petrol and 32 days of diesel in fuel reserves that "we haven't had to draw from".
He said fuel importers also have 30 to 60-day contracts that "will be honoured as well".
Asked if the unspecified Brisbane petrol station, which restricted its diesel sales, is a general indication of where the industry is heading, Lee said it was hard to tell given each service station's circumstances can vary.
"Businesses that don't carry a lot of stock are finding themselves exposed. They might just be simply saying 'we're going to reserve that for X, Y, Z [reasons]'," he said.
"I've got another retailer who has contracts to supply the agricultural sector, so he's been having to hold off on selling to mums and dads over the past week because he's got to reserve his diesel supplies for his agricultural customers. Everyone's situation is different."
Businesses that purchased their fuel on a contractual scheduled basis – as opposed to independent buyers – weren't as immediately impacted by international price changes, Lee said.
"Some retailers purchase the daily spot price, while others buy on a seven, 14, 21 or 28-day contract. So this means that some retailers will see international price changes immediately, they're the spot price people. That's where the spike in the prices is," he said.
However, various independent service stations in regional areas have sounded the alarm bell when it comes to their supply limitation.
In a report by Nine News on 9 March, Transwest Fuels – which operates in regional NSW and Queensland – co-owner Sam Clifton said some of his bowsers were completely drained amid an “unprecedented collapse in supply availability”.
“In Tamworth, we’re completely out of unleaded and E95,” Clifton told Nine News.
The independent business owner said small businesses like his were currently at risk, stating large suppliers were prioritising big franchises.
“The major retailers are getting preferential treatment by the big players ... If we go down, there will be no jobs for them,” he warned.
But according to Lee, major suppliers will prioritise loyal customers as opposed to the retailers who source their stock from a range of different companies.
"Some retailers will buy from supplier X this week because they're the cheapest. In one to two weeks' time they'll [go to another supplier]. So what happens with those retailers is, because you don't have a long-term relationship with your supplier, those major fuel companies are going to look after those longstanding customers who may have rolling 14 or 30-day rolling arrangements," he said.
"So the independent [retailers] who shop around for the cheapest, they get shuffled to the back of the pack."
In response to fuel retailers reportedly price gouging amid a surge in demand, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Commissioner Anna Brakey said the consumer watchdog was keeping a close eye on the industry and retailers were on notice.
“The ACCC will not hesitate to take action if representations and market behaviour by a petrol company contravene competition and consumer laws. We have written to major fuel companies to set out expectations about domestic fuel pricing as these international events unfold,” Ms Brakey said in a media statement.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
