Could the Royal Navy fuel a Pacific fleet?

Would the Royal Navy face the same fuel problem as Japan when operating a battle fleet in the Pacific?

Not to the same degree: Britain had spent the interwar years building large fuel stores at Singapore, in Malaya and Ceylon, and at Australian bases such as Darwin.

The answer turns on infrastructure prepared before the crisis rather than the nominal endurance of individual ships. Britain had distributed large fuel stocks across a chain of imperial bases positioned to support movement into the Indian Ocean and western Pacific. Those stores give the Royal Navy places to refuel and sustain a concentrated fleet while Japan struggles to move its own heavy units far from home. The historical Japanese campaign in Southeast Asia later benefited from capturing British stocks at Singapore, an indication of their scale and strategic value.