First batch of jet fuel pumped to Auckland after pipe repaired, tankers still to deliver

Sunday, 24 September 2017

The fuel pipeline from the Marsden Point Refinery to south Auckland, which crippled New Zealand air travel after bursting last Thursday, has been repaired.

The first batch of jet fuel has been pumped from Northland to Auckland since a ruptured 170km fuel pipeline was repaired.

The pipeline, which supplies virtually all fuel to the city, including jet fuel to Auckland Airport, has been out of action since last Thursday after tearing due to digger damage.

Energy and Resources Minister Judith Collins said the fuel should be ready to load onto planes on Tuesday.

It was repaired on Saturday and seven million litres of jet fuel arrived at the Wiri, south Auckland terminal about midday on Sunday.

Auckland Airport was expected to be reconnected to a steady stream of jet fuel from Tuesday, Energy and Resources Minister Judith Collins said.

An image of the damaged section of pipe, which is thought to have been scraped by a digger.

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'The new section of pipeline has been welded, certified, pressurised and the first batch of jet fuel is now arriving at the Wiri terminal in south Auckland,' she said.

'Once it has finished arriving at Wiri, it will take 30 hours for the fuel to settle. It is expected to be ready to load on planes from the early hours of Tuesday morning.'

The pipeline would operate at 80 per cent until further tests were carried out over the next few months.

Three tankers travel between Marsden Point and the airport twice daily, Collins said, with five trucks expected on the road on Monday.

Mobil and BP had been transporting jet fuel out of the new truck loading facility at Whangarei over the weekend, with Z beginning trucking efforts on Monday.

While the airport had been running on 50 per cent of fuel allocation, more than 140,000 litres of jet fuel was trucked to the airport on Saturday, with 151,000 litres expected to arrive on Sunday.

Fuel industry spokesman Andrew McNaught said an operating ommittee would continue to consider the fuel allocations to airline customers on a daily basis and the allocations would be eased as soon as possible.

'While we are keen to meet the demand of our airline customers, safety in the resumption of supply will be the absolute priority for the industry,' McNaught said in a statement.

'Industry will be typically rigorous on ensuring all standard steps are taken and all controls are in place to ensure jet fuel meets global quality and safety standards before being released to the airport.

'Again we want to thank our airline customers, and their customers in turn, for their patience during this outage.

Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood said on Saturday terminal operations and fuel deliveries were running smoothly.

Oil and chemical tanker Matuku offloaded 1.5 million litres of jet fuel and 7.9 million litres of diesel at Auckland's Wynyard Wharf on Saturday.

That was expected to be ready for distribution by Wednesday.

'While great progress has been made on restoring supply through the pipeline, government and industry are continuing to work tirelessly to ensure fuel is still getting where it needs to be,' Collins said.

At the start of the fuel crisis, airlines' fuel allocation was cut by 70 per cent, disrupting thousands of air traveller's plans.

For a time some Auckland petrol stations also ran out of 95 octane fuel.

There could be short periods where certain fuel grades were still unavailable but Aucklanders should not be worried, fuel industry spokesman Andrew McNaught said.