Iran war live updates: Tehran vows retaliation over ship attack; Australia's treasurer says economy in part 'hostage' to US, Iran moves

An energy company that saw its Geelong refinery engulfed in flames says it hopes to return production of diesel, jet fuel and petrol to more than 90 per cent of capacity within “the next few weeks”.

Viva Energy CEO Scott Wyatt said the company was committed to a full investigation into the cause of the fire, which broke out late on Wednesday and was extinguished after some 13 hours.

Residents near the refinery last week accused the company and emergency authorities of inadequate messaging around the severity of the blaze.

“This was a significant event which was confronting for our employees, neighbours, and the broader community,” Mr Wyatt said.

“I am relieved that everyone is safe and apologise for any distress this has caused.”

Viva has promised that the costs of lost production will not be passed on to consumers at the bowser.

“The whole Viva Energy team understands how important our refinery is to the energy security of the country, especially at the current time,” Mr Wyatt said.

“We will progressively restore production once we are confident that it is safe to do so, and do not expect any disruptions to fuel availability or price increases for Viva Energy’s customers as a result of this incident.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also taken a number of questions about the inflation modelling that will be included in the upcoming budget.

The forecasts will be settled in the next week or two but Chalmers adds that the budget will also include “some discussion of the downside scenarios where this plays out even worse than we’re currently anticipating”.

But the budget won’t present more than one budget bottom line.

“There’s an extraordinary amount of uncertainty in all of that, because it relies on decisions taken in Washington and Tehran and elsewhere,” he said.

“The Australian economy is in lots of ways hostage to those developments and those decisions.”

Sal Mercogliano, a maritime history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina, says the US seizure of an Iranian container ship is “an escalation but also a retaliation” to Iran firing on ships over the weekend.

“What we saw were attacks on ships trying to get through. Two Indian tankers and a French container ship were attacked,” Professor Mercogliano said, speaking with ABC Morning News.

Professor Mercogliano said the Touska was on a scheduled run from China through Singapore and Macau delivering cargo to Iran and said acting on Trump’s order to search the ship could be “problematic”.

“Searching a container ship involves having to offload the container ship and this ship is carrying probably somewhere in the range of 2000 containers,” he said.

When asked if he believed the US seizure was a violation of the ongoing, two-week ceasefire Professor Mercogliano said that might not be the case.

“It seems as if both US and Iran view the water as a neutral zone where they can do what they want,” he said.

“Both Iranians and US have now attacked shipping on the seas.”

We previously reported 18 ships made it through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday before renewed tensions brought traffic to a halt.

Now data from shipping analytics firm Kpler has revealed that number was more than 20 — the highest number of ships to cross the waterway since March 1.

Among the vessels that made it through on Saturday, five of them last loaded cargo from Iran ranging from oil products to metals. Three of them are liquefied petroleum gas carriers with one each heading to China and India.

Other vessels included:

• Panama-flagged tanker Crave, carrying liquified petroleum gas from the United Arab Emirates to Indonesia
• Two tankers, Akti A and Athina, carrying refined products loaded from Bahrain, They are headed to Mozambique and Thailand, respectively
• A Liberian-flagged tanker, Navig8 Macallister, shipping about 500,000 barrels of UAE’s naphtha, a component of gasoline production, to Ulsan in South Korea
• A Liberian-flagged oil tanker, Fpmc C Lord, carrying about 2 million barrels of Saudi crude to Mailiao in Taiwan
• An Indian-flagged Desh Garima loaded with about 780,000 barrels of UAE’s Das crude oil, heading to Sri Lanka
• Vessel Ruby carrying Qatari fertiliser to the UAE
• Tanker Merry M carrying petroleum coke loaded from Saudi Arabia to Ravenna in Italy

Reporting with Reuters

In recent days, we’ve received plenty of questions from readers about how China fits into the war.

How Beijing views the war has become even more pertinent this morning, with the US navy seizing a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, enroute from China to Iran.

Bang Xiao, an award-winning journalist at the ABC’s Asia Pacific newsroom, has been following Beijing’s response to the war closely.

Today, he’ll join us here on the blog to answer your questions. So let us know what you’d like to know.

You can submit your questions to the blog by tapping the yellow “Login to comment” button above.

Fuel refiner and retailer Viva Energy has cut its refining capacity of petrol by 60% after surveying the damage from last week’s blaze at the Geelong refinery.

Diesel and jet fuel production is expected to be cut by 80%.

“Over the next few weeks, and subject to plant inspection, [Viva] expects to be in a position to restart the RCCU (Reformer and Residue Catalytic Cracking Unit) and lift production of diesel, jet fuel and petrol to over 90% of capacity,” Viva said in a statement to the ASX this morning.

In recent days, we’ve received plenty of questions from readers about how China fits into the war.

How Beijing views the war has become even more pertinent this morning, with the US Navy seizing a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, enroute from China to Iran.

Bang Xiao, an award-winning journalist at the ABC’s Asia Pacific newsroom, has been following Beijing’s response to the war closely.

Today, he’ll join us here on the blog to answer your questions. So let us know what you’d like to know.

You can submit your questions to the blog by tapping the yellow “Login to comment” button above.

The transport minister spoke on News Breakfast earlier this morning and was asked if  Australia would move into Level 3 of its fuel security plan if the ceasefire did not continue.

She says the longer the war goes on, the tighter things become.

“We know that we’ve got supplies secured through [to] May and people are being absolutely magnificent, frankly, in making sure that they are only using the fuel that they need,” Catherine King told News Breakfast.

“That sort of demand spike that we saw at the start of this has dropped and people are being absolutely fantastic.

“But we know we’re not out of the woods until really the strait is opened and regular fuel supplies can come in.

“We’re putting every contingency in place. We’re planning and doing everything that we possibly can, but the longer that this goes on, the more uncertain things become. So we’ve got to plan for all of that.”

Financial markets got quite excited after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open”, and US President Donald Trump followed with a triumphant, if bellicose, speech.

Oil futures fell 10 per cent and the Dow Jones Average leapt 1.8 per cent, rounding off a sprightly week for the share market.

But it hasn’t lasted, with just 18 ships making it through the strait on Saturday before Iran fired on two Indian vessels and a cruise ship.

This morning, Trump announced marines had seized an Iranian-linked cargo ship as part of blockade enforcement.

We are effectively back in a volatile version of November 2013, when it took 20 months to negotiate the same sort of deal to the one now being thrashed out at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad, except without seven weeks of war.

Meanwhile, China — the actual winner of the war —will be enjoying a surge of global interest in its solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

Read more below.

Transport Minister Catherine King spoke on News Breakfast earlier this morning and was asked if she was frustrated we weren’t closer to a deal on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

King said this where diplomacy came to the fore.

“We need every diplomatic effort there is to really get this resolved and get the Strait of Hormuz opened,” she told News Channel.

“The global community needs that to occur. It’s good that the US is sending Vice-President JD Vance for further talks. But this is really where the best diplomatic efforts are really going to be needed to resolve this.”

She says things are changing daily and it is “incredibly important to the global economy and we want those diplomatic efforts to work”.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres says “time will tell” if a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East will hold but it is a “very volatile situation”.

US President Donald Trump took to social media this morning to say the US Navy had taken custody of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that had tried to break through the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait was briefly reopened on the weekend before Iran again closed it due to the US’s blockade.

Speaking with ABC Radio National Breakfast this morning, Ayres reiterated the government’s call for de-escalation.

“Well, it’s a volatile situation, to say the least,” he says.

“That’s why the Australian government’s been calling for de-escalation and a cessation of hostilities, and why we’ve been working so hard on the fuel and fertiliser security questions … to do everything that we can to provide a shock absorber to cushion Australia and Australians from as much of what is clearly the largest energy shock in our history.”

Images of the devastation inflicted by Israeli air strikes on residential areas of Lebanon continue to emerge weeks after the attacks, as families return home following the announcement of a 10-day ceasefire. 

It’s day 51 of the Middle East war and, despite the US sending a delegation that includes Vice-President JD Vance, it’s unclear if any peace talks with Iran will take place, with state media reporting Iran has rejected a second round of talks. 

Tensions are rising, with the US seizing a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman as part of its blockade on Iranian ports.

Meanwhile, Israel has released new maps showing the territory it plans to occupy in Lebanon. It has also accused Hezbollah of committing a ceasefire violation after the IDF said it eliminated an “armed terrorist” approaching Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

To find out everything you need to know as the war enters its eighth week, check out the recap from ABC Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran: