Shane Jones floats idea NZ could store fuel safely for other countries
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones says there is an opportunity for New Zealand to promote itself as a safe place for Asian countries to store fuel, capitalising on its “clean hands reputation and the fact that we live in a relatively benign part of the world”.
Jones said he raised the idea with Channel Infrastructure chief executive Rob Buchanan that it could hold a roadshow promoting “insurance storage” in New Zealand, once the world came out the other side of the Middle East crisis.
“I think it’s an excellent idea. Obviously they have got to make their own commercial case,” he said.
Buchanan said the company, which used to operate the Marsden Point oil refinery before its closure, didn’t comment on discussions with “actual or potential customers”.
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“However, we do have significant available storage capacity and we would welcome the opportunity to work with other customers, including those based overseas, in relation to providing secure and resilient fuel storage in New Zealand as a safe haven location,” he said.
As well as suggesting New Zealand could promote itself as an international safe haven for fuel storage, Jones hopes the Middle East crisis could provide an opportunity to rekindle interest in oil and gas exploration off the coast of Oamaru.
In 2015, New Zealand Oil & Gas identified a prospect, Baroque, 60 kilometres off the coast of Oamaru, which it later opted to surrender unexplored.
“I've asked officials for advice as to whether there’s a case for us to take a small delegation up to Japan because obviously they import an inordinate amount of gas and other fuel,” Jones told The Post.
“Those of us who are politicians need to think strategically” and without a partner like Japan, any finds off Oamaru were unlikely to be developed, he said.
Jones indicated he believed it was a valid question whether the country’s five fuel importers were currently keeping their own storage tanks sufficiently topped up, but also made clear that was a matter for them, so long as they were meeting their minimum stock-holding obligations.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has advised The Post that Z, BP, Mobil, Gull and Timaru Oil Services have enough capacity in their storage tanks to hold 52 days of petrol and 41 days each of diesel and jet fuel.
An update it provided on Monday stated they were holding 29½ days, 19½ days and 28½ days of each fuel as of April 15.
Its figures indicated the petrol and diesel tanks would remain less than two-thirds full at the end of its forecast period on May 8, holding 31 days of petrol and 22 days of diesel, based on expected shipments of incoming fuel and normal demand for fuel over that period.
Jones indicated he believed it was a valid question whether the fuel importers could be maintaining higher average fuel stocks but stopped short of saying he would like them to do so.
“I’m advised that it’s standard international practice in these import-based supply chain models that the fuel ebbs and flows,” he said.
“What I want them to do is comply with their obligations — ie. adequate fuel in our sovereign waters, on its way to Marsden Point, Lyttelton or wherever, and the split between what’s on the water and what's on the land … that’s their call to manage.”
The obligations Jones referred to require the importers hold at least 28 days’ cover of petrol, 24 days’ cover of jet fuel and 21 days’ cover of diesel either in storage in New Zealand or on ships already within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
Z Energy said in a statement that fuel security was “about keeping fuel flowing through the system, not having every tank full at the same time”.
“As part of normal operations, storage levels rise and fall between deliveries to ensure the supply chain functions safely and efficiently,” it said.