{"id":330790,"date":"2026-03-15T12:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330790\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T12:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:32:07","slug":"nicola-willis-urges-motorists-not-to-panic-buy-fuel-as-oil-prices-spike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330790\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicola Willis urges motorists not to panic-buy fuel as oil prices spike"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo the first thing I\u2019m doing tomorrow is finding out from my officials why is the media reporting that Gull are feeding a sense of frenzy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AssociateAssociate Minister for Energy Shane Jones. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Gull told NZME it has been in \u201cdirect contact with Minister Jones\u201d this afternoon to confirm Gull is \u201cworking closely with MBIE and has good fuel stocks at its Tauranga terminal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some Gull stations have run out of fuel for the second time<\/a> in three days. Gull told RNZ that customers have continued to \u201cflock to our stations in search of fair fuel prices\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our logistics providers are struggling to meet the current 15%-plus increase in demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gull spokesperson told NZME: \u201cMinister Jones was also advised that Gull is currently working as fast as practical with Gull\u2019s logistics\u2019 providers to get fuel to sites that have run dry due to increased demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Herald spoke to workers at six Supercheap Autos from across Auckland, who all said they were sold out<\/a> of fuel cans.<\/p>\n

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold told Beveridge that half of New Zealand\u2019s fuel reserves \u201cis sitting there in tanks in the country and the other half is close enough that you can probably count it as being here\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is that it\u2019s all reliant on us receiving a steady supply of new boats coming every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willis told the Herald: \u201cIf international supplies are disrupted, the Government has a range of options open to ensure those who most need fuel continue to have access to it, but we are not yet at the point where additional action is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FinanceFinance Minister Nicola Willi. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Kharg Island is located about 30km off mainland Iran and handles roughly 90% of Iran\u2019s crude oil exports.<\/p>\n

Trump announced attacks on the island\u2019s military infrastructure<\/a> and said in a social media post: \u201cI have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eckhold said that while only 20% of the world\u2019s oil travelled through the Strait of Hormuz, \u201cthe important thing to remember is that the oil supplies are really unevenly distributed around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, Asia sources probably 50% or more of its energy supplies from those Gulf states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really large, energy-hungry, industrialised economies that without that oil would have some quite severe knock-on effects to global growth and obviously through to New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WestpacWestpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did model the implications of the Straits of Hormuz being closed for three months. That would see oil prices continue to rise up towards $180-odd a barrel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s obviously going to push fuel prices up quite considerably and force a whole lot of energy-saving measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the oil market closed for the week, Brent crude oil sat at just below US$104 a barrel \u2013 up from around US$70 a barrel before the conflict began.<\/p>\n

Oil markets will open again on Monday at 11am NZT.<\/p>\n

Eckhold said if the situation remained the same until the middle of April, \u201cthere\u2019ll be increasing squeeze on inventories and supply chains globally\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t really seen any of that right now. I mean, right now our fuel companies appear to be able to access supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m watching the kind of boats that are coming through from Asia now to replenish our stocks and there\u2019s no signs that those are slowing down and turning around.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know, in the middle of next month, if those Asian refiners haven\u2019t been able to receive stuff, then obviously there could be a different situation at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Knox<\/a> is a scientist turned data-journalist who investigates the stories behind the numbers, and creates interactives for Herald readers to explore them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSo the first thing I\u2019m doing tomorrow is finding out from my officials why is the media reporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9092,806,5660,67646,138,126578,246,2678,10938,2514,56387,28115,177641,6722,51720,5971,111,139,20484,5006,69,4156,177640,22126,12937,8808,24035,544,2441,12418,684,61,1865,6859,3552,792],"class_list":["post-330790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-against","tag-as","tag-attacks","tag-backdrop","tag-business","tag-cans","tag-finance","tag-fuel","tag-herald","tag-island","tag-isnt","tag-jerry","tag-kharg","tag-minister","tag-motorists","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nicola","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-oil","tag-panicbuy","tag-petrol","tag-prices","tag-running","tag-selling","tag-some","tag-spike","tag-stations","tag-there","tag-to","tag-today","tag-told","tag-urges","tag-willis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}