Latest / Best of Business / Shane Jones: Associate Energy Minister on the fuel crisis, businesses seeking long-term certainty

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Shane Jones: Associate Energy Minister on the fuel crisis, businesses seeking long-term certainty · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: The fuel story. Questions got raised yesterday at that stock
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: update around delays, potential delays, whether or not we could
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: have more clarity about where we're app businesses apparently want
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: less talk about supply and more about long term confidence. Anyway,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Shane Jones, Associate Minister of Energy, is back with the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Shane Morning. Yeah, the one ship delay thing that sort
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: of got made a thing yesterday and as I rank
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: some people and they said, this is like not even
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: a thing. Do we know what the hell's going on?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: You know, not you guys, but from the media's point
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: of view and from the information flow point of view, oh.
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  Speaker 3: O, the PM addressed this the other day and you said, look,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: there's congestion up in Singapore. There's a massive reorientation taking
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: place as they try to find feet, stock and crude
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: supplies from different sources. So there's always going to be
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: a few logistical challenges. I don't think people should exaggerate
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: their significance of the event.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Do you are you pulling every leever you can? Information wise?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: A business says we need to know more. Can you
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: give us more as there more to be given?
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a damn good point. So the
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: situation is that we do operate a high trust model
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: with the oil import companies. If I can describe them
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: in that vein and officials are examining, Okay, what additional
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: info can we give? Because the real plague upon us
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: there's always going to be risks, But the real plague
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: is uncertainty. And if we can plug the gaps of
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: uncertainty in the business community with a further additional information
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: being provided by the oil companies within a constructive relationship
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: with our officials, it's not a bad idea.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, they do they have stuff they could give you
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: that you want to know about. And if so, what
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: is it.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Well, if we were to ring, for example, channel, they
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: can easily tell us what vessels aredocked and booked to
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: bring fuel and disforge the fuel at Marsden Point. And
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: if that's the nature of the information that peak industry
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: bodies would like to see and hear to give them
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: some certainty as to how they cope over the next
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: two or three months, a lot of that information already exists.
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  Speaker 3: We've just got to work through with the fuel companies
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: how much of it can be provided. And look, although
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: there's no clear legal obligation for them to be exhausted
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: in the info they give us, public trust trumps their anxieties.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Indeed is your relationship with them, and there's with yours.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: What would you pick a word? Robust, healthy, happy, loving.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, it's got to bear in mind this is
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: a high trust model. This is a deal that our
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: government entered into in twenty twenty four that the country
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: would never be never be left stranded. These a sophisticated,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: herculean sized organization with global reputations that have never once
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: said to us that fuel will not be delivered, and
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: we have substantial penalties and law in the event that
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: they don't observe their statutory obligations.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: You've told us this before as an exercise in asking you,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: should they go, hey, we can't do it anymore? Would
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: you take them to court with a view to.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: What Well the law lays out what the process is.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: But look, I think we should maintain our confidence that
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: although the supply is sticky and the prices are large,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: there is no way that any of them will see
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: any upside in not observing their statutory obligations.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Good the swaps, the tickets, the deals we started talking
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: about a couple of weeks ago. Where are we at
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: with that and how close to some sort of fruition.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Well, the PM said the other day that supply remains
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: a key outcome and there are a range of options
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: and when the time is right then we can obviously
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: be a bit more transparent as to what commercial arrangements
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the Crown could or could not operate within. But the
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: most important thing is that we don't want to do
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: anything that undermines the capacity or the obligation upon the
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  Speaker 3: fuel companies to maintain their word to New Zealanders, and
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: officials will give us advice as to if the Crown
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: is to take a stake and increase the buffer, what
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: are the steps we ought to take.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: But you would know that already, wouldn't you. I mean,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: you've had two weeks.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: We've got a bunch of options. But you'd be the
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: first person to complain if I was recklessly revealing commercial
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: matters on your show without Cabinet authority.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure i'd quite like that if you
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: wouldn't mind, But there you go. I'm just interested is
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: it a real live option that can materially change the picture,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: or it may never come to pass.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Well, we've already committed to re establishing and recommissioning ninety
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: tw one hundred million liters worth of storage and Marson Point.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: So that's the first thing. If you bring more fuel
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: into the country, what do you do with it? Do
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: you leave it on a ship bobbing and the tide
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: or do you put it on shore? And that ninety
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: odd billion is about eight to nine days worth of diesel,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: So you know, I think it's a positive step, shows
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: that there's a level of agility within the crown. But
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: at the same time, we chew throw twelve million dollars
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: worth twelve million liters every day of diesel. So these
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: are large amounts that we're talking about.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Good to heavy on the program. Change Jones associated Minister
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: of Energy. He's done a very good job on this,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the same way Mark which has done a very good
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: job on the weather. He's done a very good job
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: in the oil And I keep going back and it's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: not I'm trying. I'm not even actually trying to be
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: political about it. It's just I don't care who runs
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: this country. Happens to be a government at the moment
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: that you know, you might like, you might not, But
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: my point being, I don't know that you can necessarily
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: fault them to this point in the way that they've
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: conducted this particular operation. And as regards the back and
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: forth yesterday with the journalists with the Prime minister, they
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: were trying desperately to make this delay of one ship
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: a thing. And it struck me because I watched it live.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: It struck me that some of them at least didn't
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: actually know what they were asking about. They didn't actually
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: get why they were asking the question or what the
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: point of the question was, and therefore it didn't seem
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: to be a thing. So we rang Simon Perham, who's
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the whitmo boss that we get on periodically. Here he's
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: up in kl at the moment, presumably looking for oil.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: He says, this was a ship that was delay by now,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: so it's not like a ship's not coming. It was
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: delayed by an hour. So anyway, he says, it happens regularly.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: It's about loading or unloading time. So you just think
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: about the size of these things, for God's sake, I mean,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you don't pull into a car park and just whip
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: a few boxes off and then he's on his way.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Is These are massive ships, so unloading and loading. Weather
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: can play a part, of course. The cyclone last week
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: there was a small delay as a result of that.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't blink twice his words, not mine. I wouldn't
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: blink twice upon him hearing about that delay. It's an hour.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: It's like, Geez, no worries. That's what Simon says, because
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: he's our man. Geez no worries. So if he's not worried,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not.
• 7:19
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