Diesel supplies in the South Island are tight following an unplanned extension to an outage at Refining New Zealand, late crude oil deliveries, and two companies importing cargos of finished diesel which did not meet New Zealand specifications.
However, companies have arranged urgent import cargos from around Asia Pacific to boost stock positions and the first of these arrives in the South Island on Sunday to begin replenishing stocks.
Z Energy general manager of supply and distribution, Rob Freeman, says that while supply of diesel was tight across the South Island, Z had planned for a possible scenario like this and routinely holds higher stock levels to ensure it can consistently meet customer demand.
“New Zealand has developed a very tight fuel supply infrastructure over the last 20 years and holding additional stock for times like this represents a major investment of capital,” Freeman says.
