Fuel companies have assured motorists in Northland there won't be any shortage of petrol during the busy festive season.
The assurance follows a false alarm that temporarily shut down the only fuel pipe from the Marsden Point refinery to Auckland on Sunday and a spike in the demand for petrol recently due to hot weather.
Some service stations, particularly in Auckland, ran out of regular 91 and premium 95 petrol yesterday morning after supply was cut.
However, supplies in Northland were not affected as fuel was transported by oil companies directly from the refinery.
Z Energy and Caltex spokesman Jonathan Hill said there was plenty of fuel to go around and he couldn't see any reason why Northland motorists would be unable to get the fuel they needed.
He said since jetfuel supplies took precedent after the pipe line re-opened on Sunday evening, forcing Z Energy and other oil companies to transport motor vehicle fuel from the refinery to Northland and outside the region.
"We're already quite tight in terms of trucking fuel. November and December is a busy period for international and domestic travellers and we've had an incredibly hot start to summer that caused a spike in fuel demand," Mr Hill said.
Andrew McNaught of Mobil Oil New Zealand said the company has no issues with the supply of fuel throughout Northland.
Mobil, he said, was making alternative arrangements like additional trucking of fuel to satisfy demand in Auckland.
BP spokeswoman Leigh Taylor said none of the company's service stations in Northland ran out of fuel and said shortages in Auckland would to be minimal and short-lived.
Sunday's false alarm followed a rupture of the same pipeline in September that caused major jet fuel shortages, saw flights cancelled at Auckland Airport and the Navy called in to help move fuel south from Marsden Pt.
The leak was discovered on September 14, with up to 70,000 litres of fuel having seeped into the ground.
Refining NZ spokesman Greg McNeill said the certifying pipeline authority has recently approved increasing the pressure of the pipeline.
That, together with early completion of an extra pump at the Kumeu station, meant the pipeline was now supplying higher volumes of fuel.