Removal of New Zealand coastal tankers will put fuel security in jeopardy

Uni­ons rep­res­ent­ing New Zea­l­and sea­farers say an announce­ment that two New Zea­l­and flagged oil tankers will be taken out of ser­vice is a high risk move that leaves New Zea­l­and vul­ner­able to sup­ply chain dis­rup­tion.

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and rep­res­ents sea­farers and the Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild rep­res­ents ships cap­tains and officers.

The two uni­ons are call­ing for a two year morator­i­um on the decision by pet­rol com­pan­ies, and say the Gov­ern­ment needs to step in to keep the tankers on to see if the new fuel sup­ply chain works as has been prom­ised.

Coastal Oil Logist­ics Lim­ited (COLL) cur­rently trans­ports pet­ro­leum products from Marsden Point to New Zea­l­and ports on behalf of its share­hold­ers BP, Mobil and Z.

Two New Zea­l­and flagged and New Zea­l­and crewed coastal tankers oper­ate on the New Zea­l­and coast, the MT Kokako and the MT Matuku.

The ves­sels are man­aged by New Zea­l­and oper­at­or Sil­ver Fern Ship­ping Lim­ited and owned by inter­na­tion­al oper­at­or ASP Ship Man­age­ment Group, which charters them to COLL.

The clos­ure of the Marsden Point refinery will see a move to dir­ect inter­na­tion­al refined fuel imports to New Zea­l­and ports, accord­ing to pet­rol com­pan­ies.

Apart from the Marsden Point–Auckland pipeline, the major­ity of domest­ic fuel is cur­rently shipped from Marsden Point by the two New Zea­l­and-flagged tankers to region­al ports for dis­tri­bu­tion.

Mari­time Uni­on Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says New Zea­l­and coastal tankers ensure a reli­able reg­u­lar ser­vice with a very strong safety record.

Mr Har­ris­on says the tankers provide a backup option for emer­gency fuel deliv­er­ies, such as occurred dur­ing the 2017 Auck­land pipeline fail­ure.

Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild Vice Pres­id­ent Iain MacLeod says a dis­rup­tion of fuel sup­plies to region­al New Zea­l­and through glob­al crisis or nat­ur­al dis­aster would have dan­ger­ous con­sequences.

He says the main les­son of the cur­rent dis­rup­tion of glob­al sup­ply chains in the post-COV­ID era is New Zea­l­and can­not rely on over­seas ship­ping oper­at­ors.

Mr Har­ris­on says a small diver­sion of funds from fuel levies on highly prof­it­able pet­rol com­pan­ies could provide a guar­an­tee of two New Zea­l­and-flagged coastal tankers remain­ing on the coast for a tri­al peri­od of two years in the cur­rent unpre­dict­able glob­al envir­on­ment.

“We are ask­ing the Gov­ern­ment to take a ser­i­ous second look at this situ­ation, rather than regret­ting things when it is too late.”

Both uni­ons view the cur­rent strategy as high risk and driv­en by cor­por­ate self-interest, while the implic­a­tions of major shifts to New Zealand’s fuel sup­ply chain have not been fully explored.