Fuel disruption to be sorted by Christmas

BP and Z Energy said some stations across their networks faced shortages of diesel and other grades, but the affected sites are constantly being topped up. Photo / File

A disruption that's left a number of service stations around the country without some fuels is expected to be resolved before the Christmas road rush.

Z Energy and BP reported some stations across their networks are facing shortages of diesel and other grades, but said those affected sites were constantly being topped up.

The situation was a consequence of the fuel transportation problems the country has had after the latest disruption to the Marsden Point to Auckland fuel pipeline.

The pipeline supplies petrol, diesel and jet fuel from the Marsden Pt Refinery to the Wiri Oil Terminal in South Auckland.

It supplied about 95 per cent of Auckland's total fuel, including all of Auckland International Airport's jet fuel.

The 170km pipeline was shut down for more than 12 hours last Sunday following what turned out to be a false alarm from a leak detection system.

There were already lower supplies following the rupture of the Refining NZ pipeline at Ruakaka in September.

The pipeline had been operating at 80 per cent capacity since then and it could be early next year until it is fully restored.

A BP spokeswoman said a small number of BP stations in Auckland and Wellington are affected.

A Z Energy spokeswoman said there were "sporadic and short-term" stock outages across the company's network, but these were being replenished continuously.

The most affected area was the Wellington region, where some sites had been running out of diesel.

"Ground fuel stocks are on the rise and we expect the situation to improve and be back to usual stock levels by Christmas."

Another tanker of diesel arrived in Wellington on Friday night and this fuel was being used to replenish sites in the lower North Island today.

"There's plenty of fuel around at Z, lots of sites still have diesel, those that don't are being replenished with rolling deliveries and there's very little impact on 91."

The logistics challenge in getting more fuel from ports to service stations would result in some service stations running out of some fuel varieties in the short term.

"These shortages will be occasional and won't last long as we work to replenish stocks as soon as possible."