2026 Fuel Prices & Security of Supply

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#3469654 13-Mar-2026 12:22

Apparently a few Gull stations ran out one or more fuel grades on discount Thursday:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360950673/tensions-petrol-pump-over-unfair-bulk-buying-kiwis-say-some-stations-running-dry

Probably just taking away business from other stations.

richms

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#3469655 13-Mar-2026 12:24

They had discount day which attracts the worst of the people that will block the road waiting to get into the one in birkenhead, and then others want to turn right into it despite a long queue of people coming the other way turning left into it.

IMO running a discount day when supply is like this is absurd and they should be told not to do it again.

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fastbike

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#3469672 13-Mar-2026 12:38

richms:

They had discount day which attracts the worst of the people that will block the road waiting to get into the one in birkenhead, and then others want to turn right into it despite a long queue of people coming the other way turning left into it.

IMO running a discount day when supply is like this is absurd and they should be told not to do it again.

Who is going to tell them. This government thinks denial is a river.

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richms

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#3469677 13-Mar-2026 13:25

fastbike:

Who is going to tell them. This government thinks denial is a river.

Council or auckland transport since I am sure that promoting a queue out blocking traffic would be something that their resource consent was not issued to include.

Richard rich.ms

Scott3

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#3469716 13-Mar-2026 14:15

richms:

They had discount day which attracts the worst of the people that will block the road waiting to get into the one in birkenhead, and then others want to turn right into it despite a long queue of people coming the other way turning left into it.

IMO running a discount day when supply is like this is absurd and they should be told not to do it again.

In general retailers should be discouraged from trading in a way that creates drama for their neighbors & passer's by. Would be good if "discount days" for petrol stations were stopped. Pricing structures that spread traffic over a longer period is desiable.

On the second point:

You imply supply is short, my understanding is this is not the case in NZ. The fuel station did partially run out as people rushed to the discount, but they were able to refill by the next morning, no indication any other stations nearby ran out.
Breaking normal discounting patterns in times when a lot of people are feeling price pain can be seen as price gorging. In Austrailia, petrol retailer's are getting beaten by the media on increasing margins from 8c / L to 30c/L.
Breaking normal discounting patterns, on the basis of supply, sends the message that things are not normal. Could clash with the government "don't panic message".

SaltyNZ

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#3469718 13-Mar-2026 14:19

richms:

fastbike:

Who is going to tell them. This government thinks denial is a river.

Council or auckland transport since I am sure that promoting a queue out blocking traffic would be something that their resource consent was not issued to include.

Somewhere deep in Epsom, David Seymour's Regulatory Senses are tingling.

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#3469740 13-Mar-2026 14:42

SaltyNZ:

Somewhere deep in Epsom, David Seymour's Regulatory Senses are tingling.

He has the tasman fuels there which is even worse from what I have been told for queues. Right beside the superchargers.

Richard rich.ms

jameshammond

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#3469760 13-Mar-2026 15:39

Tasman Fuel's terminal pricing for the next week is out. This gives an idea of wholesale/bulk pricing. Diesel has gone from 2.04 to 2.61.

https://tasmanfuels.co.nz/terminal-gate-pricing/

ezbee

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#3469764 13-Mar-2026 15:46

Its an old story, buy your competition and then close them down, or rightsize them.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/589424/wattie-s-supplier-fears-for-industry-s-future-after-proposed-closure-of-factories

So we may import frozen food we would normally grow and have stored for our resilience.

That supply chain subject to supply of Bunker Oil for shipping and offshore risks when importing.
Other countries priorities in tough times.

Our internal electricity/energy costs, resilience also feed into this.
Transport energy costs to distribute, and for competitive export, costs in bulk to ports.

To have competitive industries to process our food, timber, building materials maybe toilet paper etc?
Be competitive in exporting value added products, part of that value the energy that goes into processing.
Not just commodities.

Edit, and ice-cream.

mattwnz

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#3469769 13-Mar-2026 16:11

ezbee:

Its an old story, buy your competition and then close them down, or rightsize them.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/589424/wattie-s-supplier-fears-for-industry-s-future-after-proposed-closure-of-factories

So we may import frozen food we would normally grow and have stored for our resilience.

That supply chain subject to supply of Bunker Oil for shipping and offshore risks when importing.
Other countries priorities in tough times.

Our electricity/energy costs also impact on this.
Transport energy costs to distribute, and for competitive export, costs in bulk to ports.

To have competitive industries to process our food, timber, building materials maybe toilet paper etc?
Be competitive in exporting value added products, part of that value the energy that goes into processing.
Not just commodities.

Yeah, selling off our silverware for short term gain, just means we end up paying more in the long term, lose control and are at risk of major issues if international supply lines get cut. Australia have some redundancy to cope with this sort of thing and they seem to protect their businesses more than NZ, so they remain Australian owned.

cruxis

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#3469774 13-Mar-2026 16:47

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.

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#3469803 13-Mar-2026 17:26

Lots going on.

Trump has flipped from boasting about low gas prices. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,”

New York times reporting mines are being laid by Iran.

USA is reducing sanctions on Russian oil. Major reversal given they doubled tariff's on India as punishment for buying Russian oil.

Austrailia has released six days of fuel from it's emergency stockpile.

Some entire Australian towns are out of fuel (Underlying issue is that the big fuel importers are freezing out the independent players, stacked with high demand, rather than an underlying lack of fuel)

Australia is allowing high Sulphur fuel for the next 60 days.

mattwnz

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#3469808 13-Mar-2026 17:33

I think it is weird that Australia seems to produce high sulphur fuel which it normally exports to countries that have lower standards. That seem so much like double standards. But I guess it is a good option in an emergency situation to have that on hand as a contingency. I wonder if NZ can also get access to that.

Batman

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#3469812 13-Mar-2026 17:52

mattwnz:

I think it is weird that Australia seems to produce high sulphur fuel which it normally exports to countries that have lower standards. That seem so much like double standards. But I guess it is a good option in an emergency situation to have that on hand as a contingency. I wonder if NZ can also get access to that.

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

wellygary

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#3469817 13-Mar-2026 18:06

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.

I suspect in the current environment Fuel theft might be looked on a bit harsher than it was previously ...

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