Fewer stations run dry but supply strength questioned

"The fact these figures are effectively flat means fuel is going out the door to service stations and farmers, and fuel is going in the door at Australia's import terminals and refineries," Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.

The number of service stations running out of petrol and diesel had gone down, Mr Bowen said.

In NSW 150 service stations were without diesel, 32 less than on Friday; in Victoria 51 had run out of diesel, down by 23; and in Queensland 49 were without diesel, down by seven since the start of the Easter break.

"The total number of service stations without diesel in Australia, which is where the main pressure has been, is 312 out of the around 8000," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney.

He reiterated the Albanese government's call for families to stick to their Easter holiday plans but to buy no more fuel than they needed and to buy it in the city to help keep supplies up in the country.

"Australia's fuel supply remains strong still; more than 50 ships are on their way to Australia, still only six cancellations of forward orders."

Mr Bowen said new orders had more than replaced the cancelled ones and fuel companies had told him they were very confident of the supply of 3.7 billion litres booked in for April and going into May.

But Matt Barrie, executive chair of online freight marketplace Loadshift, said Mr Bowen was "celebrating ships on the water" bringing 3.7 billion litres when Australia burned through 4.5 billion litres a month.

"His survival tip to drivers is to plan your route around fuel availability - which is basically conceding we have a crisis while pretending we don't."

On the government's proposed $1 billion fund to help affected businesses, dispersed through interest-free loans, Mr Barrie said Loadshift had canvassed its 40,000 carriers and none of them wanted a loan. 

"They want the excise and GST on diesel gone.

"They want to know why a country that exports more energy than almost anywhere on earth can't fuel its own trucks."

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told reporters a positive was that the international benchmark price for unleaded petrol had stabilised.

That and the cut in the fuel excise was being reflected at the bowser, with the average price in most capital cities for unleaded now in the low $2.20s, about a 20 to 30 cents a litre reduction.

Australians could have confidence they could go on a road trip and there was going to be petrol and diesel for them but they shouldn't buy more than they needed, Mr Khoury said.

"We don't want fuel sitting in your jerry can at home because that belongs in a truck or in a harvester," he said.

Mr Bowen said the majority of imported fuel had come from Asian refineries but since the war in the Middle East, Australia had been sourcing from the US, Mexico and other countries.

"That's a good thing for diversifying supply."

It was seeding and sowing season in NSW and that was why service station fuel outages had been higher in that state, the energy minister said.

"But I do think, I hope, that we're seeing now the worst of that past," Mr Bowen said.

"We don't know exactly how this war will end. I'm not sure anyone around the world does but the sooner it ends the better."