Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says that if the business case doesn’t stack up for a planned liquefied natural gas import terminal in New Zealand “we won’t be doing it”.

Luxon’s comments this morning on Newstalk ZB came after the Herald reported the Government’s plan to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in Taranaki to reduce electricity prices is in doubt.

“LNG as a commodity will be elevated for a bit,” Luxon said, but insisted that the Government would make a decision “brutally” when the terminal’s procurement process finishes in the middle of the year.

“There’s a number of bidders in there, they’ve got a whole bunch of ideas,” he said.

“They’ve got to make it stack up and we’ll make a call.”

Asked if New Zealand needed to follow Australia’s lead and underwrite fuel purchases, Luxon said he had been in discussions with fuel importers, and he suspected MBIE’s fuel stockholding update this afternoon would show New Zealand was “in good shape”.

“There’s been no challenges over the last week or so, so ships have been arriving and that’ll be adding into our stocks.”

However, if there was additional capacity New Zealand could get, he wanted to be “opportunistic” and do so now, rather than later.

That included “unsolicited bids over and above fuel that we’re already getting from the fuel orders that are coming out of the importing companies”.

The PM also indicated that more people could be in line for Government support but it would have to go to those who genuinely needed it - it could not be a “cash bazooka”.

“We’ve got to keep an eye on making sure we’re … minimising impacts on inflation and growth,” Luxon told Mike Hosking.

While petrol prices continue to hurt consumers at the pump, the spotlight has fallen on diesel, with the possibility of catastrophic consequences if the fuel runs short.

Farmers and freight companies are already hurting as diesel prices spike.

It comes amid a war in Iran showing no sign of slowing.

Thousands of extra United States troops have arrived in the Middle East amid preparations for a ground invasion, provoking dire threats from Iran’s leaders.

With Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz constraining global oil shipments, last week Finance Minister Nicola Willis outlined a four-level fuel plan, as well as the trigger points to move up each level.

New Zealand remains at Phase 1, with no restrictions on fuel use. Many other countries have already brought in fuel-saving measures, including working from home and limits to purchases.

MBIE today will release its latest fuel stockholding levels, showing how much petrol, diesel and aviation fuel is in the country, as well as how much is on the water and due to arrive in the next three weeks.

The latest figures – which were valid until March 22 – showed there were 18 days’ worth of diesel in the country and 28.3 on the water, including about 11 days’ worth that were unloading or moving between New Zealand ports.

One diesel shipment was due to arrive in the past week, and another six were due to arrive by April 12, according to MBIE.

The Government is also mulling paying to increase diesel storage at Marsden Point as a buffer. That plan had previously been kicked down the road both by Labour and the coalition Government.

Luxon told Hosking this morning that he was reminding New Zealand’s key fuel-supply partners of comprehensive strategic partnerships upgrades. That included the Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies with Singapore, which will be signed in May but was “already operating”.

Luxon says Southeast Asian leaders will be fielding many calls from “very anxious” people but he’s trying to put New Zealand “top of mind” in their conversations.

Countries with refineries were “hustling” to find alternative crude oil sources, including from Canada, Chile and Peru, he said, adding that New Zealand was “relatively well-organised” compared to other countries and had much higher stock levels than Australian and others.

“You go to places like Malaysia, Slovenia, I was talking to the European president, they’ve all got different systems where they’ve been underwriting fuel and they’re now massively exposed. They’ve all got their sets of dramas.”

Securing fuel supply would be expensive but was the number one job; the second decision was getting a framework for who would get to use the fuel if it had to be rationed.

“And three, make sure you can support Kiwis but learn the lessons from Covid and do not repeat them.”

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