Extra fuel ship due in New Zealand by end of month
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
A new fuel ship is being tracked on its way to New Zealand by an Australian economist who keeps tab on international crude oil, fuel and petrochemical supplies.
The Esteem Endeavour left Singapore two days ago and is due to arrive into Lyttelton Port in Christchurch on April 30.
It’s carrying what’s called clean petroleum product, which Macquarie University economist Lurion De Mello, who compiles the data, says can be any mix of petrol, diesel or jetfuel.
As of Wednesday April 8, the Government’s fuel stock reports measured the country’s fuel stocks at 59.7 days of petrol, 49.1 days of diesel and 50.7 days of jet fuel.
Read more:
The fuel stocks update lists 14 ships as being on the way to New Zealand as of Wednesday April 8 - five within the EEZ and nine en route.
De Mello’s table of publicly available data shows 10 ships are either in the EEZ or en route in the same time frame as the latest government data.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Monday the country’s fuel importers continue to report “no material issues with incoming shipments”.
“New Zealand is actually in quite a strong position, if I think about even relative to, say, Australia. We lifted our minimum stock holdings when we first came to Government, and that has served us quite well. But what we're looking for is a world where should we have a disruption down the road… we want to have additional supply as well,” he told reporters on Monday.