Government to launch independent inquiry into pipeline failure

Pipeline repair work site at Ruakaka. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A back up plan for trucking fuel to Auckland and alternative storage facilities are among the options for a high-level inquiry to consider to make the fuel supply to Auckland less vulnerable.

An independent Government Inquiry will be launched next year into the Marsden Refinery to Auckland fuel pipeline, following the September outage from a leak that saw the pipeline shut down for 10 days.

The pipeline supplies petrol, diesel and jet fuel from the Marsden Pt Refinery to the Wiri Oil Terminal in South Auckland. It supplies about 95 per cent of Auckland's total fuel, including all of Auckland International Airport's jet fuel.

Earlier this month, it was also shut down for most of a day following a scare.

"The Refinery to Auckland Pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure for our country," Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods said today.

"We need to find out what went wrong last time, but for me, one of the most important things is how we can avoid this in the future. So storage will absolutely have to be something we look at.

"Prior to the September outage there was no plan around how to transport fuel into Auckland in this circumstance. We need to look at holding exercises to make sure that we are well placed if we have to, in the short term, do that again."

An independent Government inquiry will be able to compel evidence and access to relevant information. The terms of reference will be established early next year, along with independent inquirers.

Woods said the outage saw some Auckland petrol stations run dry.

"There is no escaping the fact that we have to ask questions about what happened and how we fix it in the future, and we won't shy away from asking those questions."

Opposition leader Bill English said the inquiry didn't seem necessary.

"That looks just like another inquiry as a way of avoiding addressing the issue directly. They should just go and talk to the people who run the pipeline and make decisions about actions they think the Government should take."

But Woods said the pipeline was key infrastructure and even if the inquiry didn't use its compulsion powers, it was important that it could - if needed.

"The inquiry will investigate not only the immediate causes of the outage, but also the maintenance and operation practices at the pipeline and if they are fit for purpose," she said.

"We will also look at how we can make our fuel supply more secure in the future – investigating options for improving resilience."

Woods has also instructed officials to look at short-term ways to improve resilience.

The pipeline is a 170km buried pipeline between the Marsden Pt Refinery and a bulk oil storage terminal at Wiri. It is operated by Refining NZ, the operator of the Marsden Pt Refinery.

An earlier report prepared for the Ministry of Economic Development, which was subsumed into MBIE, found New Zealand's national fuel supply network was reasonably robust and adept at responding to most disruptions.

However, there was a risk to Auckland supply because the Marsden Pt refinery supplies almost all of the city's fuel through the refinery-to-Auckland pipeline.