While emphasising there was plenty of fuel available to get through April, Chris Bowen said additional releases from reserves were on the table.
"Fuel suppliers will continue and are locked in and will continue to arrive," he told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.
But beyond late April, the situation was more uncertain and dependent on how international events panned out, Mr Bowen said.
Oil prices have soared and global supplies cut after Iran's de-facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation against US-Israeli strikes.
"We will release more of the strategic fuel reserve if we have to, but only if we have to. It's there for a rainy day," Mr Bowen said.
One-fifth of the national reserve of petrol and diesel has already been released from emergency stockpiles, including 500 million litres going into regional areas.
Government subsidies will continue to Australia's two remaining oil refineries, in Geelong and Brisbane, after six months of negotiations over the payments.
Only a "very low percentage" of service stations were out of fuel, Mr Bowen said after reports of outlets running dry in some regional areas.
"(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," he said.
The energy minister will meet with state and territory counterparts later on Friday to discuss fuel supply issues due to the Middle East conflict.
Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume said she was pleased a fuel co-ordinator had been appointed to oversee supply problems, but wants more action.
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 already led to an increase in abuse of service station workers.
Customers desperate for petrol or frustrated with high prices were taking it out on staff behind the counter, said Motor Trades Association interim executive director Peter Jones, who represents independent service stations.
"We've had a lot of reports of service station attendants and staff being harassed," he told AAP.
"They are not the people that make the price. 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."
There had also been reports of an increase in fuel siphoning, which involved petrol or diesel being stolen directly from a vehicles's tank.
"That's something I haven't heard of for a long time ... it came as a surprise to me," Mr Jones said.
Smaller, independent service stations the association represented were only making a few cents of profit on each litre sold while dealing with massive wholesale cost increases, he added.
"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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