Airlines have urgently been told to ration jet fuel at Wellington, the fourth case of a bad batch of aviation gas in New Zealand within a year and increasing frustration within the aviation sector.
An airline group says the latest problem with jet fuel was a blow to carriers just before Christmas.
Air New Zealand is taking 25 per cent less fuel at Wellington until Christmas Day but says its schedule will not be disrupted. It also says the problems with traditional fuel strengthen the case for an alternative, such as the sustainable aviation fuel (Saf) it will take on board in Singapore this week.
The Board of Airline Representatives says the repeat incidents of jet fuel problems demonstrate New Zealand’s lack of jet fuel resilience. The fuel used to be refined at Marsden Point but since the closure of the refinery in 2022 jet fuel has been imported from refineries overseas, mainly in Asia.
There have been four known problems in the past 13 months.
Since November 2022, there have been three jet fuel shipments which have failed to meet testing requirements upon arrival in New Zealand.
A shortage of fuel in Tauranga in May also angered airlines.
The board’s executive director,Cath O’Brien said airlines are currently managing busy Christmas schedules, and the urgent requirement to manage fuel loads is an unwelcome balancing act.
“While some airlines will tanker fuel from other ports around New Zealand, other airlines fly directly from Wellington to international locations. For these airlines, carrying additional jet fuel inbound to Wellington is more impactful. Carrying extra jet fuel is expensive and generates unnecessary carbon emissions.”
Implementation of the fuel resiliency legislation is critical.
Airlines would like onshore fuel holdings for jet fuel at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as a minimum requirement.
“At present on shore fuel holdings are only planned for Auckland. This approach will not deliver us the resilience we need,” said O’Brien.
Barnz said it wanted to talk about fuel resilience with Simeon Brown - the new minister of transport and energy - early in the new year. Brown today told the Herald he would closely monitor the situation but understood there should be no impact on people’s ability to travel around the country.
When the refinery closure was announced in August 2021, National said it would look to “future proof” Marsden Point for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
“National sees Marsden Point as a strategic asset for New Zealand’s energy security,” National’s then Energy and Resources spokeswoman Barbara Kuriger said.
“We would be exploring ways to keep the refinery in a state where it can be turned back on in the future, such as in the case of a global disruption. Many of the strategic reasons Marsden Point was built initially for remain today.”
The former Labour Government’s move was “unnecessarily risky” without exploring other options. Kuriger said.
A Cabinet paper showed the former Government considered but didn’t go through with financially supporting the refinery after its oil company shareholders voted to close the facility.
Air New Zealand’s chief operational integrity and safety officer, David Morgan, today said a fuel shipment that arrived in Wellington on December 14 was found to be off-specification after failing freeze-point tests.
Because of this, Air New Zealand will be running at 75 per cent fuel allocation until midnight on December 25.
The next scheduled fuel delivery is expected on January 1 with the fuel ready for use on January 3, “test results pending”. Morgan said the airline didn’t expect any disruption as a result. Qantas is the biggest operator of international flights out of Wellington and says it has the same restrictions as Air New Zealand but, also, has no flight disruptions.
Exxon Mobil and BP supply Wellington Airport and say the “matter is being addressed with the highest priority”.
The companies said they were working to put alternative supply arrangements in place to manage potential impacts.
As a precaution, there would be temporary rationing.
“This matter is being addressed with the highest priority, and operational updates will continue to be provided until the normal supply of jet fuel to Wellington Airport has been restored.”
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand says fuel contamination or fuel not meeting specification gives weight to its work around fuel diversification, including its Saf programme.
The development of sustainable aviation fuel is not only critical for decarbonisation of aviation, but it is also an important fuel security mechanism from non-fossil sources. Air New Zealand will take a small Saf delivery in to Singapore’s Changi International Airport overnight tomorrow..
This is the first Saf supply delivery outside of the airline’s main hub of Auckland.
The delivery of 850 tonnes of Saf is the approximate equivalent of 16 Singapore to Auckland flights on the airline’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
While the volume is small, representing about 0.1 per cent of Air NZ’s fuel for this year, the airline says the lessons are significant, particularly as it seeks to better understand Saf supply chains in the Asia Pacific region and continue to scale Saf adoption to meet its 10 per cent target by 2030.
Earlier this year the airline announced the start of two feasibility studies assessing the viability of Saf production locally in New Zealand, and last month it co-chaired the kick-off meeting for Sustainable Aviation Aotearoa’s Saf working group.
The airline is also working with Beta, a battery plane maker, to trial an aircraft on short domestic freight routes in 2026.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.