Fuel stocks down slightly across all types

Fuel stocks of all three types of fuel are down slightly - although the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment says that’s expected given the recent arrival of several shipments.

As at 11.59pm Sunday evening there were 49.3 days’ worth of petrol, 47.7 days of diesel, and 55.1 days of jet fuel either in the country or on its way.

This is compared to 52.6 days of petrol, 52.7 days of diesel, and 58.7 days of jet fuel in the previous update.

Three ships are within two days of arriving in New Zealand, while a further seven are on the water outside the Exclusive Economic Zone.

MBIE said the stock movements reflected the usual shipping patterns and routine variations it expected to see even without the conflict in the Middle East.

The ministry said the supply chain was operating smoothly, and fuel was continuing to flow into the country as expected.

Fuel importers had provided good confidence through confirmed orders to mid-June, with planned orders extending into July.

Under the government’s fuel response plan, drops in fuel stocks at these levels would be enough to trigger a review of the phases.

New Zealand still sits at phase one, meaning the government continues to take a ‘watchful’ approach.

Finance minister Nicola Willis said there was no need to review that following this update, as the government continued to have confidence it had its forward order books sorted.

“This fluctuation is consistent with what we would normally expect in a well-functioning market, noting that the last two updates we’ve seen significant increases in the amount of fuel across the categories,” she said.

“So this is just the normal lumpiness of ships arriving and discharging their fuel at different times, and we have every confidence there are more on the way.”