Iran War: MBIE defends twice-weekly updates on fuel stocks amid criticism
Thursday, 26 March 2026
The ministry responsible for providing New Zealanders with information about the country’s fuel stocks is defending the rate at which information is coming out.
The Government has been releasing data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) twice a week to provide the latest figures on the country’s fuel.
At latest count, which was Sunday at the time of reporting on Wednesday, there were 46 days’ worth of diesel, 48 days’ worth of petrol and 43 days’ worth of jet fuel.
Those numbers included the fuel in the country and on its way to New Zealand on board ships.
Read more:
Lobby group the Taxpayers’ Union believed information could be provided more often and took matters into their own hands, creating a “Fuel Clock” which took into account MBIE and shipping data.
Spokesperson Tory Relf said it was to make sure all the information available to the public was accessible.
Relf said there should be a way for the Government to provide more up-to-date information.
“If we can do it in a few days, with essentially a very clever intern, MBIE should be able to do it themselves.”
An MBIE spokesperson said they received fuel stock data from fuel importers twice weekly which was provided voluntarily by the industry to support transparency of supply.
“It takes time for the data to be compiled and quality checked before it can be made publicly available.
“For example, data for Monday is collected by the importers at midnight Sunday and provided to MBIE on Tuesday. It is then checked and publicly reported on Wednesday.”
The spokesperson said they were not planning to release data more frequently.
“Our latest update will make it easier for people to see where fuel supply ships are physically located, which ships are unloading fuel or moving between ports within New Zealand waters, and which have left their port of origin but are still more than two weeks from arriving.”
The ministry was aware of other information circulating about New Zealand’s fuel stocks such as the counting clocks, they said.
“We have not assessed the reliability of these but the most up-to-date and accurate information about New Zealand's level of fuel reserves can be found on MBIE’s website, as this comes directly from fuel importers.”
Energy and resources spokesperson Megan Woods told media on Thursday she would support information being released more than twice a week if it was going to be useful.
“I think one of the things that we do know that what's in the tanks does shift throughout the week, what some of the most important information is what ships are coming in, what can we expect, what's about to land in New Zealand.”