Energy Minister Chris Bowen said a small number of service stations were experiencing shortages of fuel, as 500 million litres of petrol and diesel were being released from emergency stockpiles into regional Australia.
Petrol stations in regional areas have been reporting a lack of fuel at the bowser, despite Mr Bowen saying all ships supplying oil to Australia were arriving as scheduled.
"Our fuel supply remains as it did before the bombing of Iran. The challenge we have is that demand remains very, very high ... doubled in a couple of days, any supply chain for any commodity is going to struggle with that," he told ABC Radio on Friday.
"We're seeing that across the country, particularly rural and regional areas, the number of service stations, or percentage of service stations that are full out of fuel, is very low as a percentage of the service stations across the country.
"(It's in the) low single digits, but that doesn't mean it's not a real challenge for having trouble getting fuel in rural and regional areas."
Mr Bowen said it would still take time for the additional fuel being released from reserves to flow through to service stations across the country.
"The ships that we have expected to arrive have arrived in terms of diesel and petrol and jet fuel, and that the two refineries are working well to get as much supply out into the system as possible," he said.
The energy minister is set to meet with state and territory counterparts later on Friday on energy supply issues following the Middle East conflict.
Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume said while she was pleased a fuel tsar had been appointed by national cabinet to oversee supply issues, more needed to be done.
State and federal governments on Thursday appointed former Australian Energy Regulator boss Anthea Harris to oversee a fuel supply task force.
"The fuel tsar would be entirely unnecessary if Chris Bowen was doing his job from day one," Senator Hume told Seven's Sunrise program.
"We need to secure the supplies, certainly make sure that the distribution networks are working in every state."
The crisis has led to an increase in abuse of service station workers.
Customers desperate for petrol or frustrated with high prices were taking it out on workers behind the counter, Motor Trades Association interim executive director Peter Jones, who represents independent service stations, told AAP.
"We've had a lot of reports of service station attendants and staff being harassed," he said.
"They are not the people that make the price. They are the people who serve somebody who's just bought it.
"In rural areas where there is no fuel, whether it be diesel or petrol, emotions are relatively high ... we've asked for people to be respectful," he said.
Mr Jones said he had received reports of an uptick in fuel siphoning, where petrol or diesel was stolen directly from a car's tank.
"That's something I haven't heard of for a long time ... it came as a surprise to me," he said.
Concerns about siphoning had so far been confined to Hobart, Mr Jones said, but he warned uncertainty about when the war would end had driven up demand for fuel around the country.
He said the smaller independent service stations he represented were only making a few cents a litre and dealing with massive wholesale cost increases.
"So what somebody might think of as price gouging, it's just handing on the increase of price or cost to them," Mr Jones said.
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