A surge in demand has emptied pumps at a handful of stations across the country, but an industry expert says there's no need for panic buying, even as the Government prepares contingency plans.
Gull spokesperson Julien Leys said customers “flocked” to their discount day on Thursday, but that 97% of sites met the extra demand.
“Sites that sold through yesterday, have, or are currently being refuelled for Gull’s customers by our logistics’ providers.”
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Gull confirmed it did not have any incoming supply issues and the shortages were a result of demand.
AA fuel price principal policy advisory Terry Collins thought panic buying “is only a little bit of a blip occurring because of the uncertainty in the market”.
“We don't need to panic buy. Currently, we don't have a shortage. There's a little bit of panic buying going on because people want to get in before the price goes up.”
“We've got plenty of fuel here, and we've got plenty of fuel on the water…it really comes around to how much the global supply is disrupted, how long it's disrupted, and how quickly we can adapt to it.”
The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment’s latest fuel stock update as of midnight, March 8, recorded a total of 52 days overall for petrol, diesel and jet fuel in country and in-water on the way. There was 57.9 days worth of petrol total, 49.9 of diesel and 46.8 of jet fuel.
Collins said the price of oil was currently about US$100 a barrel. “It's going up and down. There's a lot of risks associated with it, and it's about NZ$3 a litre.
“Somewhere between US$150 and US$200 a barrel… really is where you would get your NZ$3.50 plus, up to $4/L if it got to those extreme levels.”
He said the key components to the price were how long the conflict lasted, how major the disruption are, "and what other countries are dragged into the conflict".
“The length of disruption is the major, major, major concern.”
While it wouldn’t be the first move the Government would make if the situation in the Middle East continues or deteriorates further, it is receiving advice over potentially rationing fuel demand.
Government has the power to impose demand restraint regulations including the restriction of use of cars, rationing schemes, prohibiting the storage or sale of petroleum products, if it is likely to be in short supply.
Collins said that rationing allows government to utilise fuel for more essential services, “and set priorities around who's going to get it in regards to the minimum fuel security plan”.
“What [government has] done is plan for the worst, and we just hope we don't have to do it because it won't turn out. At least we've got a plan, at least they’ve thought about it.”
Collins recalled the decades-old policy of car-less days. “They were different times. They didn't have work from home. The cars were really inefficient by today's standard. And even though there were less of them, there were less people as well."
On if high prices would impact demand, Collins said they found many people not living in major urban areas didn’t have other options.
“They can't hop on public transport. They don't have cycle ways. They can't walk from the farm into town and get the milk. Those options are not available to a large section of New Zealanders, and so they have to take transport options.
“A lot of people just have to travel. So really, what it means is the money that's used to pay for the extra petrol is not used for something else.”
20 Comments
I remember when that was said about toilet paper.
Panic buying appears the order of the day.
Countries are hoarding, why not individuals, do as I say not as I do?
There's that.
It's potentially going to become a problem.
Everything only works if everyone's on a similar page. If rules and laws are abandoned by the leadership, it'll go from the populace eventually also. Unless it's got super deep cultural roots.
"It's potentially going to become a problem."
Think that was evident from day one....but laissez faire.
The good news is with AI and cheap cameras you can operate your own stasi for cents in the dollar.
Its even cheaper to make a man out of straw
It is. I get the reference, but not really sure what context you're trying to attribute it to.
Perhaps equating government exercising responsibility to its citizens with a police state. If you are concerned about such Id suggest you may wish to consider who holds all the details of your browsing history, or the businesses operating facial recognition etc....private companies.
Perhaps equating government exercising responsibility to its citizens with a police state.
Hmmmm. Yeah that's not what I was going for. I'm talking about how political machines may turn as things go more woo-woo. We are highly likely to see democratic decline and some less palatable replacements arise.
Or maybe they'll be hyper effective pragmatic types.
"We are highly likely to see democratic decline and some less palatable replacements arise."
Think we are well past that point...as evidenced by the bombing of Iran.
I'd tend to consider this very early stages.
China has told oil refiners to halt all fuel exports amid a worsening conflict in the Middle East, casting doubt over at least two cargoes due to be shipped to Australia and raising the risk of broader shortages within a month.
Officials in China have instructed refineries not to load cargoes that had not cleared customs by March 11, according to Aldric Chew, the head of oil pricing in Asia Pacific at data service Argus, citing traders.
I made a call to prebuy thousands of litres at the beginning of last week.
If things get bad maybe I can't get it all, but then if I can't access it, things are so bad I won't need it either.
Many Aussie Bunnings are out of jerry cans, I filled mine up last week just in case need for genset ....
"Thousands of litres"
Why not get an EV?
I've got a PHEV and I've filled up once this year.
Some of its for farm machinery.
I have been looking at an EV commercial van, which is a bit of a compromise because there's a need to haul decent weights longish distances to locations without electricity. And there's not really a PHEV option there apart from a Ford that has 30ks of EV only range and a 1 liter engine.
I'm also not looking to make too many purchases for the time being, just watching how the next while pans out. Depending on how upsie downsie things go I may not be doing the same things in 12 months time, and maybe I'll be getting into something else.
Restrictions need to be in place ASAP. You can’t say everything is OK because we have a months supply until all of a sudden it’s a weeks supply and we are screwed. Planning needs to done immediately to include the possibility that this drags on for no-one knows how long. Because if supplies disintegrate we need what we have for getting food and emergency supplies around the country until who knows when. If you limited supply by 20% now that only gives us another 10 days.
this is not time for the govt to be worrying about polls or popularity or anything
Jonesy is on it
Vote buying takes precident in todays day and age where politicians aren’t there for the good of the people, but to bolster their own careers. They’ll act of it is seen to be better for the optics and have then coming out the other side with more shine. Were a politician do the pragmatic, unpalatable thing of acting now, the public would hound them with outrage stating govt overreach and excessive measures….until it helped the masses down the line. Make or break move really
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