Finance Minister Nicola Willis has referenced New Zealand\u2019s 50 days of fuel supply as reassurance. But read the fine print: roughly half of that is fuel sitting on tankers at sea, in transit from the very region in crisis. The fuel physically on New Zealand soil is closer to 28 to 33 days \u2014 and storage is concentrated in the north, leaving regional centres effectively running on just-in-time supply. In 2026, somehow, Muldoon-era carless days are being discussed as a last resort.<\/p>\n
But energy is not a lifestyle choice. It is the oxygen of economic activity. <\/p>\n
Every business consumes energy somewhere in its cost structure. When costs surge, there are three choices: pass it to the customer, absorb it through efficiency gains, or close. There is no fourth door. This is precisely why energy price shocks are so broadly inflationary \u2013 they strike all sectors at once.<\/p>\n
The businesses best weathering this shock invested in energy diversification during quieter times. <\/p>\n
Decisions that protect margins, reduce import exposure, and keep staff employed when global energy markets turn hostile looks far less like green virtue signalling now, write Nick Stewart. <\/p>\n
Fleet operators who transitioned to hybrid or electric vehicles alongside their conventional diesel workhorses are finding their total fuel bill lower.<\/p>\n
Those who installed solar are generating their own daytime electricity, reducing grid dependency precisely when costs are most volatile. <\/p>\n
Far from green virtue signalling, these are decisions that protect margins, reduce import exposure, and keep staff employed when global energy markets turn hostile. <\/p>\n
Resilience is built in calm weather, not in a storm.<\/p>\n
Now to the harder conversation \u2013 one that goes beyond oil.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s coal reserves exceed 15 billion tonnes, spread across Waikato, Taranaki, the West Coast, Otago and Southland. Our West Coast bituminous coal is considered a premium product valued in global steel production. Yet Genesis Energy\u2019s Huntly Power Station sources most of its coal from Indonesia, with imports surging 311% in 2024 as domestic gas supply fell. We export quality. We import what we need to keep the lights on. That\u2019s a paradox, not a strategy.<\/p>\n
The same logic applies offshore. Geological surveys estimate a 90% probability that New Zealand holds undiscovered oil reserves of at least 1.9 billion barrels. We aren\u2019t Saudi Arabia, but we\u2019re far from a barren rock.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to the \u201ccaptain\u2019s call\u201d that still demands accountability. In 2018, then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unilaterally banned all new offshore oil and gas exploration permits \u2014 no parliamentary vote, no national referendum, one announcement. Then her government stood aside as Marsden Point \u2014 our only oil refinery \u2014 was permanently decommissioned in 2022. The owner has confirmed there is no prospect of restarting it. No big green lever. Gone.<\/p>\n
A nation surrounded by resources, above and below the waterline, yet choosing to import its vulnerability \u2013 Muldoon would be baffled. His Think Big programme was explicitly designed to reduce oil import dependency. The methods were imperfect, but his instincts weren\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n
The toilet paper panic of 2020 passed. Let us use this one to have the conversations we should have started long ago \u2013 before Ardern\u2019s captain\u2019s call made it more urgent than they ever needed to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Nicola Willis has referenced New Zealand\u2019s 50 days of fuel supply as reassurance. But read the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1117,2177,1863,18296,138,10166,25906,30726,27008,8607,537,2837,219,5830,27501,78,17095,776,685,111,139,6933,69,1118,4156,1523,45644,22126,3333,43296,7248,117865,58218,6934,23333,57816,223,107,61,1865,29889,179603,3382,139049,4767],"class_list":["post-339858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-accused","tag-average","tag-back","tag-box","tag-business","tag-businesses","tag-cents","tag-commentators","tag-commodity","tag-covid","tag-crisis","tag-during","tag-economy","tag-fought","tag-heard","tag-in","tag-jumped","tag-language","tag-last","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nick","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-oil","tag-over","tag-paper","tag-petrol","tag-price","tag-puts","tag-seat","tag-signalling","tag-single","tag-stewart","tag-suddenly","tag-survive","tag-the","tag-then","tag-to","tag-today","tag-toilet","tag-unleaded","tag-using","tag-virtue","tag-weekend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339858","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=339858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}