Northland Oil Refinery closure: Petition to save the site presented to Parliament today

Social Credit leader Chris Leitch will be present the petition to Parliament today Photo / Michael Cunningham

An 18,000-signature petition calling on the Government to declare Marsden Pt Oil Refinery a nationally strategic asset and to compulsorily buy all shares will be presented to Parliament today.

The move comes as the wider social and economic implications are being considered of the country's only refinery stopping producing fuel and instead becoming a fuel import terminal, storing up to 180 million litres of refined products.

The petition, organised by Whangārei-based Social Credit leader Chris Leitch will be presented to Parliament today by Whangārei-list MP and National Party interim leader Dr Shane Reti.

It calls on the Government to declare the refinery a nationally strategic asset and to compulsorily buy all shares from private owners using money created by the Reserve Bank.

Refining NZ's board has confirmed the change in operations of the site, meaning the refinery will transition to an import-only fuel terminal from April.

The refinery's shareholders voted overwhelmingly in August for the change - with the new entity known as Channel Infrastructure - to go ahead due to what it said was a glut of fuel supplies globally, combined with the impact of Covid-19 on refinery output, pipeline fees and plummeting demand for fuel.

The number of workers at the site is expected to drop from 300 to 60, with hundreds of contracting jobs and services from associated businesses in wider Northland also likely to be cut.

Janine Abernethy, chairwoman of Bream Bay Chamber of Commerce, said the decision has not come out of the blue for the area and work was being done to find alternative employment for those losing their jobs and work for businesses that supplied the refinery.

Abernethy said the closure would hit the workers, the wider Bream Bay community and Northland economy, but the refinery needed major upgrades to keep running. She said it was important that new opportunities were looked at for the workers, the wider business community and the refinery site.

"You can't just stand around saying 'woe is me'. It wasn't our choice, but I'm positive we can figure out a way to move forward.

"We are working towards getting other employers here to take up some of the slack."

Turning Marsden Pt Oil Refinery into a fuel import only terminal will have major impacts on Northland's economy.

First Union transport, logistics and manufacturing secretary Jared Abbott said only about 20 of them would still have jobs under the new structure. Up to another 100 jobs on the site will go. The union represents about 180 workers at the refinery, and more in firms that supply the plant.

Abbott said the decision had devastated the workers, many of whom would have to move overseas if they wanted to continue in their chosen profession.

"They are highly skilled workers and sadly there will be few opportunities in New Zealand for their level of skills. There will be a few who may get jobs elsewhere in the region, or some who may use their redundancy to set up small businesses, but for most of them they will have to go."

He hoped he government would intervene and maybe set the site up for bioenergy purposes to produce greener fuel.

"It's been there 50 years and to many of these workers it's not just a workplace and machinery, it's a living thing, they have grown with it and helped make it grow too."
Abbott said the refinery was built from public money and he would have no issues with it being returned to public ownership as it was strategic asset.

Leitch said the decision by the Refining New Zealand board to shut down the plant and become an importer of overseas refined fuel was a disaster on every conceivable level, and would lead to higher fuel prices.

"It's a disaster for our fuel security and puts New Zealand at the mercy of international oil powers or geo-political events and removes completely our ability to source oil from multiple sources across the world or use New Zealand's own oil should it become necessary.

"It's a disaster for Northland, with the loss of millions of dollars of income for Northland businesses, a loss that will see businesses, particularly in Whangārei being closed. It's a disaster for contractors and support businesses that will lose guaranteed regular income from the regular shut-downs and ongoing maintenance work.

"It's a disaster for the country's skill base with highly skilled staff forced to move offshore, taking with them with the expertise needed to move us forward into producing bio-fuels, advanced jet fuels and other new technology solutions to move away from total reliance on fossil fuels."

Meanwhile, the Maritime Union says the closure is sending New Zealand on a high-risk track at a bad time.

Union Secretary Craig Harrison said the closure was a giant step backwards for New Zealand's energy security.

He said outside Auckland, fuel is currently shipped from Marsden Pt to ports using New Zealand flagged and crewed vessels, whose future could be in jeopardy, with future supplies possibly delivered to ports by international vessels.