"Settling, recertification and transport to the airport for use will take another 30 hours."
Meanwhile, a huge shipment of diesel and jet fuel will be taken to Auckland on the New Zealand Navy's oil tanker HMNZN Endeavour, which arrived at the refinery's Marsden Point wharf late yesterday afternoon.
The truck loading facility at the refinery was also tested for product quality and safety yesterday and a trial loading into a road tanker took place.
"All going well, other road tankers will be loaded thereafter," Mr McNeill said.
Refinery chief executive Sjoerd Post described the pipeline failure as a disaster, but one in which no lives or homes were lost - which was always the worst possible scenario when dealing with oil products and delivery.
Mr Post said as well as the containment of leaked fuel, removal of contaminated material and preparation for the pipe's repair, a major concern of Refining New Zealand had been ensuring neighbours and the community were safe.
He said there had been aspects of "alarmism" in some coverage and information surrounding the incident but that had not impacted on the processes the refinery had to get on with.
Asked whether there had been a serious chance the country, or even Auckland, would be crippled by the lack of oil flow, Mr Post said that was not a question the refinery was best placed to answer.
The refinery's task was to manage the refined oil's distribution, whereas it was up to petrol and major transport companies such as Air New Zealand to manage their storage and use.
He said while the work had progressed to plan in difficult circumstances, once the refinery was back to capacity there would be a review of the processes, how things went and what might be done differently if needed in the future.
