Fuel remains in short supply in some areas and it’s uncertain how long the issue will last.
Service stations in various parts of the country are reportedly running out of some fuels such as 95-octane and diesel.
Fuel terminals in Auckland, Wellington, Napier and parts of the South Island have lower stocks than normal because of continuing issues with the Northland fuels pipeline and higher than expected seasonal demand.
Z Energy says rolling shortages of diesel and 95-octane can be expected over the next few weeks, Stuff reports.
BP, along with others in the industry, is managing the supply of fuel out of the Wiri terminal following reduced operating capacity of the Refinery-Auckland pipeline (Marsden Point to Auckland) due to the September outage, and increased seasonal demand, the company says.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure as little interruption as possible to our customers,” BP New Zealand managing director Debi Boffa says.
“We are trucking fuel into the region from other terminals and closely monitoring fuel supply at each site. Unfortunately, some products may still be temporarily unavailable at some sites. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers.”
The Marsden Point fuel pipeline temporarily shut down on December 10 after a leak-detection alarm went off, checks showing nothing amiss.
While the shutdown was short-lived, industry is continuing to actively manage some impacts to ongoing fuel supplies, Refining NZ says.
Following the September disruption to the pipeline, Refining NZ has been operating the pipeline at a reduced capacity to meet pipeline certification requirements.
Coupled with the recent short outage, the result is lower than usual stock levels at the Wiri terminal, which supplies fuel to the industry and Auckland Airport, it says.
Industry is closely monitoring the situation and each fuel company is individually working to put alternative supply arrangements in place to minimise any impact to customers.
Service stations which run short of a fuel are usually topped up within hours.
