NZ fuel storage under‑used, but PM says supply risk low
Wednesday, 8 April 2026
Data provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment confirms the country’s five fuel importers have the spare capacity to store significantly more fuel than they currently have on hand.
But Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made clear he wasn’t concerned the tanks weren’t being topped-up as close to full as possible.
The ministry (MBIE) had previously said Z Energy, BP, Mobil, Gull and Timaru Oil Services had the capacity to store 420 million litres of petrol, 434 million litres of diesel and 198 million litres of jet fuel.
That includes some fuel and dregs at the bottom of storage tanks that can’t easily be used but excludes fuel that they have trucked to their service stations, with those “overs” and “unders” roughly cancelling each other out.
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MBIE has now confirmed the tank storage equates to sufficient capacity to hold 52 days’ worth of petrol and 41 days’ worth of both diesel and jet fuel.
Its latest fuel-stock update issued on Monday showed the tanks were only about half-full on April 1, with about 27 days of petrol, 18½ days of diesel and 25½ days of jet fuel on hand.
The tanks are expected to fill up further by April 24, given that the amount of fuel being shipped to New Zealand is expected to exceed daily consumption over the period.
As of that date, there should be 39 days of petrol, 28½ days of diesel and 27 days of jet fuel stored in the tanks, based on MBIE’s figures and assuming fuel demand runs at normal levels over the next few weeks.
But that would still mean the fuel importers had spare capacity for another 12 days of petrol, 12½ days of diesel and 14 days of jet fuel at the end of the period.
The Government has agreed to pay $21 million to Channel Infrastructure, the owner of the former Marsden Point oil refinery, to race to prepare extra storage tanks by about the end of May to hold an emergency supply of diesel that it hopes to source and that would be equivalent to about seven days’ demand for the fuel.
Luxon voiced no concerns over the fuel companies’ approach to keeping their tanks topped up, however.
“The key thing we’ve got to look for … is making sure that there’s no disruption to future fuel supply orders or shipments,” he told The Post.
“We’ve got good quantities in-country, within our Exclusive Economic Zone and on its way, so we’re very comfortable with where we sit today,” he said.