Andreas Heuser: Heuser Whittington Partner on New Zealand's fuel security with the conflict in the Middle East, South Korea

Keeping the Marsden Point refinery open would not have helped the current fuel supply situation, as the crude oil it refined would have come from the same choke points as overseas refineries, a senior economic advisor says. 

It follows Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones’ statement yesterday that the closure of Marsden Point under Labour had “fatally wounded” New Zealand’s fuel security. 

But according to a 2025 fuel security study for the Government, keeping the privately-owned Marsden Point open would have been the mostly costly resilience option, and would only have bought a little more resilience, Heuser Whittington partner Andreas Heuser told Mike Hosking this morning. 

“There are much better resilience options such as increasing the tankage in New Zealand, and our transition to EVs will also help us.” 

Heuser was confident New Zealand currently had the right settings in place, although it may need to look at updating the minimum stockholding requirements for diesel. 

However, if the situation became more serious and led to rationing, the Petroleum Demand Restraint Act 1981 may need updating to reflect that New Zealand no longer had a domestic refinery. 

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