Iran war: Christopher Luxon promises news on commercial fuel deals within a week
Monday, 13 April 2026
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the Government will have something to say on potential commercial deals to secure more fuel within a week.
Luxon was speaking as New Zealand’s overall supply of fuel tracked slightly down in Monday’s update, and as oil prices began to rise again on the back of increased tensions between the US and Iran.
His Government said two weeks ago that it would explore commercial opportunities to secure more fuel supply for New Zealand.
Luxon said that fuel importers were still indicating to him they had no big problems with supply, but the Government was still working on potential commercial deals, and they would go to Cabinet soon.
“I think within the next week, we should be in quite a good place with some of the negotiations,” Luxon said.
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He told Newstalk ZB on Monday morning an announcement could be expected within a week.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who has been chairing the group responding to the crisis, has refused to give any more detail on the deals, citing commercial sensitivity.
Her office would not confirm whether Willis had participated in any discussions with commercial partners or even if any of the potential deals had progressed to Cabinet.
“As ministers have previously said, officials are progressing discussions with fuel suppliers about potentially procuring additional fuel stocks. These are commercially sensitive discussions so there isn’t anything further that can be added at this point.”
Luxon said his conversations with fuel importers meant he was not worried about overall supply, even as publicly available data shows no new fuel tankers arriving after April 23.
“Right from day one, we've been talking with our fuel importers. They give us a lot of confidence that they've got all of their orders, all of their shipments are coming through, up until the end of May, even some into June.”
Government data suggests 14 tankers are on the water on the way into New Zealand.
Luxon said New Zealand’s main sources of refined fuel - Korea and Singapore - were finding other sources of crude oil to make up for the loss in crude from the Middle East.
He said this was giving “everyone a lot of confidence” but his Government was “not being complacent about it”.
Luxon repeatedly compared New Zealand’s response favourably against Australia’s, noting Australia had lower minimum stockholdings at the start of the crisis - about 33 days of use compared with New Zealand’s 49.
“So you'll remember that New Zealand is actually in quite a strong position, if we think even relative to, say, Australia. We lifted our minimum stock holdings when we first came to Government, and that has served us, I think, quite well.”
Australia’s Government have recently unveiled a deal to underwrite fuel supplies from some commercial importers.