Iran war: Ministers to meet amidst report South Korea could halve NZ fuel supply
Wednesday, 11 March 2026
The Government is closely monitoring reports that South Korea could end fuel exports, but there has been no official suggestion that they would, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says.
South Korea provides about half (47%) of New Zealand’s refined fuel following the closure of the Marsden Point refinery.
Willis was speaking to the media ahead of the first meeting of her Government’s new ministerial oversight group on Wednesday evening, which has the job of monitoring fuel and supply chain security.
Energy publication Argus has reported that the South Korean Government was in talks with refineries about potentially imposing a ban on oil product exports, as the impacts from Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz continue to shock global energy markets.
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Willis said she had seen the reports and had heard similar speculation from New Zealand importing companies, but had not seen anything official from South Korea.
“I've been advised of that that there is that speculation in the market, both by fuel importing companies here, and obviously there's been media coverage,” Willis said.
She said officials at the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Foreign Affairs were monitoring the situation “closely”.
“I'm mindful that the fuel companies who have been importing from South Korea have very long standing relationships with those suppliers, and I imagine the suppliers themselves would want to preserve those customer relationships into the future,” Willis said.
It is unclear if the ministerial oversight group will make any decisions or issue any kind of report.
Willis said a priority would be making sure New Zealand had fuel security for more than just the next 50 days.
Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones, who will sit on the group with Willis, said he had seen the reports of a potential export ban from Korea and expected a fresh update from officials at the meeting.
“If South Korea decides to introduce some restrictions, they're just looking after their own interests in a way that the former Labour government didn't look after our interests when it closed down the [Marsden Point] refinery.”
The former Government did not actively close down the refinery, but declined to intervene to save it - a decision that has angered NZ First greatly.
Then Energy Minister Megan Woods said in a Cabinet paper that since the refinery relied on imported crude, the risk of allowing to close was “small”. She instead sought to increase the stocks of fuel companies must keep in-country.
“I do not propose subsidising the refinery to keep it operating for 5 or 10 years because I consider the fuel import risk to be small, and I propose instead to progress options to ensure New Zealand has adequate fuel stocks in-country to offset any fuel import risk.”
Peters: War will be over soon
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said he had not talked to his counterparts in South Korea about the reports.
He said he backed US President Donald Trump’s contention that the war was almost over.
'It won't be very long before it'll be over. It won't be months, for example,' Peters said.
He said Trump had the power to end the war as Iran was running out of defensive weapons.