Anutin signs urgent order to tighten oil trade controls and prevent fuel hoarding

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has signed Prime Minister’s Office Order No. 3/2026 on measures to address and prevent fuel shortages arising from the conflict in the Middle East.

The order states that the escalating conflict in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel and Iran has significantly reduced global energy production and exports, causing oil prices to surge rapidly and leading to fuel shortages at many service stations and oil depots in Thailand, with severe impacts on the daily lives of the public and on businesses.

A key provision in the order requires oil traders under the law to display fuel retail prices clearly and report every price adjustment to the director-general of the Department of Energy Business. 

Oil traders operating as refineries must also submit detailed reports to the Department of Energy Business, including production volumes, fuel stocks in their possession, sales details, and customer lists together with the quantities sold to each customer.

The reports must be sent to the designated email address by 6pm every day in order to ensure transparency and prevent hoarding.

In addition, the Prime Minister has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, together with the Justice Minister, the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry, the national police chief and the director-general of the Department of Special Investigation, to work with the Department of Energy Business in monitoring, inspecting and strictly enforcing the measures on all oil traders.

This includes small-scale oil traders under Section 10, who must comply with the same reporting requirements.

The move is intended to ensure effective management of the energy crisis and to ease public hardship as quickly as possible.