Latest / Best of Business / Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the Government refurbishing Channel Infrastructure’s empty Marsden Point fuel storage tanks

Transcript

Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the Government refurbishing Channel Infrastructure’s empty Marsden Point fuel storage tanks · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: There is a plan to potentially boost our fuel storage capacity.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: The Herald's Wellington Business editor, Genative Charany has been looking
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: into this and is with us Hygiena hi Heaver. So
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: this is a plan that seems to have been pitched
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: by Channel Infrastructure that the ones who run the Marsden
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Point oil refinery now they want to potentially increase their
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: their capacity for storage.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's right. Currently they have storage for about
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: three hundred million liters of fuel, but they also have
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: these tanks that are sitting there empty that could potentially
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: hold another three hundred and fifty million liters of fuel,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: so pretty much it could potentially double its storage capacity.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: The issue is, and this is what Channel has been
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: talking to the government about, is that those empty tanks
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: need to be refurbished and that would be a costly
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: and a time consuming process. But Channel has started talking
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: to the government to update them on well actually, if
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: you know, if the situation arises, we could look to
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: you know, get those tanks in a state so that
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: they could could hold more fuel from what I can
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: gather as it stands, with the regulations and things in
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: place at the moment, that process could take about a
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: year to eighteen months. So that's not going to solve
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: the problem here and now, but it seems like a
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: worthy discussion to have, you know, should we create more
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: capacity to hold more fuel because at the moment, the
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: way things run, it's pretty tight.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Does it sound like they want government funding?
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: So Channel hasn't directly asked for government funding, but it has,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I guess in updating the government on where it's at
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: and what it would cost to get these empty tanks refurbished.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm sure it would welcome some government funding.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Shane Jones a talk term today, you know, and he's
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: across this. He said, he genuinely, genuinely believed we needed
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: more storage in New Zealand, but you know, he needs
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: to work with finance mister Nicola Willis on that. And
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I talked to Nicola Willis and she was pretty hesitant
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: to suggest the government was prepared to fork out to
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: help refurbish these tanks. You know, she said, well, Channel
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: is a commercial company, and you'd expect fuel importers like
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: z Energy and et cetera to pay for the storage.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: That's currently how it works. But you know, I feel
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: like this is a space to watch. And the other
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: thing they're looking at is the regulations because as it
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: stands at the moment, you need like a bunt, like
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: from what I can understand, it's like a big wall
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: or something around the tanks to make sure the fuel
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: doesn't leak. But building that is the problem. So you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: could they loosen up the rigs to get these tanks
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: refurbished more quickly.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: It's not like this is our ownly option, right because
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: when Methodex eventually shuts down, those tanks become available, don't they.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Now that's another thing that Shane Jones said
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: he took to the Port Tuttannucky CEO about there could
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: be some storage capacity there. So you know, officials are
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: looking at this as well. From MB they're advising ministers.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: It seems like there are a lot of public servants
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: running around talking to industry trying to you know, get
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: their heads around the levers that can be pulled. So
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: this might be something that needs to be fixed. Looking
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: further down the track, it's hard to see, you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: it's hard to see these these tanks getting refurbished quickly. No,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: but you know who knows how long this whole thing
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: is going to drag on for.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you was always really appreciate it, Joe. We'll talk
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to you next week. Janetib Chrainey The Herald's Wellington business letters.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Up for more from News Talks dB. Listen live on
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: you go without podcasts on iHeartRadio