The Government is pursuing options to access alternative fuel stock in an attempt to avoid what one minister predicted would be a “mad, frenzied rush” if supply runs low.
While New Zealand has sufficient levels of fuel currently, something confirmed by an increase in overall stock in Monday’s latest update, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the Government wanted additional security and would be “more assertive”.
“Should the situation deteriorate in two months’ time, we want to put ourselves in that place right here, right now and say we’ve done everything we possibly can,” Luxon said, referring to it as an “and, and, and” approach.
He said that fuel importers weren’t communicating any issues with getting stock at this stage, but that didn’t mean the Government would “rest on our laurels and say ‘that’s fantastic’.”
“I want us to be on a much more aggressive, assertive position, which is actually thinking ahead”.
To put that approach into action, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Cabinet had agreed to explore options “to guard against the risk of disrupted fuel supply and to secure additional fuel security over and above existing minimum supply obligations”.
The Government had already received some unsolicited proposals to help with this. Ministers will assess their commercial viability and wouldn’t share any details about who was behind them.
One such option is for New Zealand to swap what are called “tickets” – essentially emergency options to purchase different types of oil or fuel that a country can call on – for useable fuel suitable to New Zealand’s needs.
“At the moment, we hold tickets to different types of crude oil as well as some refined products,” Willis said. “We have assessed those and very few of them are actually suitable for use in New Zealand.”
The proposal would be to swap that “for a particular volume of refined fuel that could be used in New Zealand”.
She said it was “essentially taking something that’s a concept on paper and turning it into real diesel and petrol for New Zealand tanks”.
The Government could do several things to support proposals, including support for shipping, storage, under-writes or risk-sharing arrangements, Willis said.
“Our goal is to only provide support where the risk is too high for private suppliers to source fuel on commercial terms without Government support. We remain committed to enforcing fuel companies’ minimum stockholding obligations.”
If additional fuel was secured, it would need to be stored.
Willis said this could happen offshore, but confirmed Resources Minister Shane Jones was also preparing to take a proposal to Cabinet to consider an option from Channel Infrastructure to allow for additional diesel storage at Marsden Point.
Jones said some regulatory barriers to this may need to be addressed to ensure the storage could be used quickly, if the proposal was approved.
The minister told reporters that converting the tickets – what he called “virtual fuel” – to material “takes time”.
“If we do not act now ... we could find that we’re in a mad, frenzied rush in the event that there is a gross shortage of feedstock into the refineries that our importers rely on”.
Anticipating criticism the Government may be “interfering with the market”, Jones said the market’s “been completely molested by a war in the Middle East”.
“We don’t see these proactive steps that we’re taking as representing a threat to the market at all, rather, it’s building a sovereign buffer for Kiwis and the various businesses.”
New Zealand’s fuel stocks have risen in recent days, an increase likely to come from a significant offloading of fuel in the country last week.
New Zealand has 21.7 days of diesel in the country as of midnight Wednesday, up from 18.1 days, which was the level of stock for midnight the Sunday prior, the last update.
There is 27.9 days’ petrol, up from 24.5 days and 25.3 days jet fuel up from 20.1 days.
Total stocks, which include orders on the water and up to three weeks away from delivery, are 59.3 days’ petrol, 54.5 days diesel, and 50.4 days jet fuel.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.