2026 Fuel Prices & Security of Supply

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#3469846 13-Mar-2026 19:38

According to MTA, anyone with heavy machinery / towable fuel bowser / fuel trailer would be more attractive as high value thefts than stealing fuel from a car. A single theft can exceed $5,000 worth of diesel.

Petrol drive‑offs dominate reported incident. Police have been criticized for not investigating low‑value car fuel thefts, especially under proposed “value thresholds.”

Often bowser theft go unreported because owners believe police won’t investigate. Some service stations and site operators have stopped reporting altogether.

Also theft from underground tanks at service stations yield far more fuel per incident than stealing from a car. Luckily this is rare because it usually require specialized access.

Anyone who has large equipment, I'd say using trail cameras is the minimum. There are also GPS‑tagged caps. In remote site motion‑activated lighting and anti‑siphon valves by themselves is not very effective.

gzt

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#3469870 13-Mar-2026 22:42

cruxis: Back in 2023 there was a wave of fuel thefts from parked cars, with thieves drilling into tanks to drain them. I suspect we’ll start seeing it take off again soon.

Unemployment seems to be increasing. Times of higher unemployment tend to see a lot of petty theft for whatever reason. Not a good thing and many hidden costs.

kingdragonfly

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#3469877 14-Mar-2026 07:23

Fuelling tensions as drivers ignore warnings not to panic-buy fuel

Stuff

ezbee

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#3470019 14-Mar-2026 10:57

Auckland for example made large voluntary water use drops when asked nicely.
We have experience with work from home, much of that infrastructure still exists.
Government could be encouraging prep for work from home.

Support on public transport costs.
If Gull experience is any measure people are looking for savings, it gets attention.
Reminding people of public transport with the old tried and true marketing tactic of a discount.

School drop off needs some thought on support for alternatives.

If you can increase safety margin our 50 day fuel storage buffer lasts for essential industries surely worth it.

If you were that sure this will be a short temporary scare, move along nothing to see here.
You would be putting the Parliamentary pension scheme on a polymarket bet :-)

k1w1k1d

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#3470034 14-Mar-2026 11:41

Maybe a good time to buy a cheap Nissan Leaf just in case we have major fuel issues?

HarmLessSolutions

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#3470035 14-Mar-2026 11:42

The Iran situation is not going to be resolved quickly. Boots on the ground is the thin end of the wedge for a protracted dispute.

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HarmLessSolutions

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#3470036 14-Mar-2026 11:45

k1w1k1d:

Maybe a good time to buy a cheap Nissan Leaf just in case we have major fuel issues?

Might pay to move fast on that. Word from an EV importer friend yesterday is that enquiries have ramped up hugely this week in contrast to what was a very depressed market previously.

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kingdragonfly

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#3470039 14-Mar-2026 11:50

I believe this was already mentioned, around using EV's

Massive AI factory: Region weighing positives against negatives: 1 News
...
The facility would use 280MW of power, making it the second-largest electricity user behind Tiwai Point aluminium smelter near Bluff.
...

HarmLessSolutions

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#3470043 14-Mar-2026 11:54

kingdragonfly: I believe this was already mentioned, around using EV's

Massive AI factory: Region weighing positives against negatives: 1 News
...
The facility would use 280MW of power, making it the second-largest electricity user behind Tiwai Point aluminium smelter near Bluff.
...

There's a huge difference between the electricity demands of significant EV uptake (especially considering V2G potential) as opposed to AI datacentres.

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richms

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#3470057 14-Mar-2026 13:37

Batman:

it will destroy my car so no thanks. unless i change the engine oil ....

Its not that bad, its just stuff that doesn't meet current standards, it was fine last year. Its not like its back to 1990s grades of fuel.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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#3470081 14-Mar-2026 16:30

kingdragonfly: I believe this was already mentioned, around using EV's

Massive AI factory: Region weighing positives against negatives: 1 News
...
The facility would use 280MW of power, making it the second-largest electricity user behind Tiwai Point aluminium smelter near Bluff.
...

Can this power not be used throughout the rest of NZ or is too much lost during transmission? I am guessing they are doing this because they are hoping to secure a cheap source of power. but if we then need to build other generation as we electrify our transport, it could end up costing NZ a lot. Also as AI is seen a s massive bubble, I do wonder if this isn't a waste of power and also a waste of resources and whether it will even last.

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ezbee

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#3470130 14-Mar-2026 17:09

Top Quote from Southland mayor Rob Scott
"We don’t have an abundance of power down here, so that’s potentially one negative.

Um. A small matter, let's just quickly move along :-)

Looks like we may have to stump up for extra set of transmission lines, probably many other things say assured Government business?
Tiwi point like long term favorable power price contract?
There may be subsidies for land, rates, and other breaks as project of national significance?
Trans-Tazman cable itself, more a national asset?

Where the heck GPUs, DRAM, SSDs, etc that are 'booked up globally for goodness knows how long' will come from?

PolicyGuy

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#3470374 15-Mar-2026 09:18

mattwnz:

Can this power not be used throughout the rest of NZ or is too much lost during transmission?

The grid is configured to deliver Manapouri power to the Tiwai Point smelter.
TransPower have a plan to enable more of Manapouri's power to go north to the rest of NZ, but it requires a IIRC capital spend of ~$600M. Governments have not been keen to authorise that while Tiwai Point is still operating

SaltyNZ

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#3470376 15-Mar-2026 09:44

ezbee:

Top Quote from Southland mayor Rob Scott
"We don’t have an abundance of power down here, so that’s potentially one negative.

Um. A small matter, let's just quickly move along :-)

Looks like we may have to stump up for extra set of transmission lines, probably many other things say assured Government business?
Tiwi point like long term favorable power price contract?
There may be subsidies for land, rates, and other breaks as project of national significance?
Trans-Tazman cable itself, more a national asset?

Where the heck GPUs, DRAM, SSDs, etc that are 'booked up globally for goodness knows how long' will come from?

Part of the resource consent conditions should have been that it came with at least 500MW of renewable power to run itself. Can't use ChatGPT to produce sick memes about how crap NZ rental properties are if the power goes out thanks to an AI slop farm sucking it all up. Likewise I can't believe they agreed to a cooling solution that uses that much water. It's in Invercargill, surely they can just open the doors and let the breeze in?

I also seriously dispute those numbers regarding jobs. Yes, there will be some temporary work in construction. But "hundreds" of long term skilled jobs? No. A handful for Downers or whoever gets the contract to be the physical presence to swap failed hardware but unless the owners of the systems and software are all NZ based then the skilled jobs are all going to be off-shore remote work. To the extent that there are any NZ operations that require huge amounts of AI compute those jobs already exist so it wouldn't be a big net increase that way either.

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mattwnz

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#3470387 15-Mar-2026 11:04

Yeah, lots of work for construction but few workers likely needed once operational. It’s a bit like all these solar farms being installed. Also they never consider end of life and do these things become an eyesore at end of life. Or are they required to remove them and if so who pays.

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