Rob Buchanan: Channel Infrastructure CEO on the Government looking into refurbishing Marsden Point to store fuel

There are “a couple” of empty tanks at Marsden Point which are in good condition and could be ready to store fuel within 2-3 months, the import terminal’s owner says. 

The Government is considering helping refurbish the terminal’s empty fuel tanks to quickly increase storage capacity amid the oil crisis. 

Currently 300 million litres are in use, but another 350m litres could be converted. 

The empty tanks were cleaned out after the refinery was converted to an import terminal, Channel Infrastructure chief executive Rob Buchanan told Mike Hosking. 

“They're all ex-crude tanks, so we can't immediately put petrol or jet fuel in them. There are tanks there that you can put diesel into much more quickly, which is one of the options that we've been looking at.” 

The company had already added 100 million litres of storage, Buchanan said, and would “absolutely” fund any further conversions of tanks. 

“The key issue is that we would need a customer for those tanks at the end of it. So if we're going to spend the money and do the work to bring a tank into service, we need somebody that wants to put fuel in it.” 

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