Fuel pipeline to Auckland reopens after leak alarm forces a day of closure

The Marsden Point to Auckland fuel pipeline has reopened are being shut by its owner Refining New Zealand at 5.15am today because of a monitoring system alarm.

Staff have been carrying out tests using leak detection software. 

1 NEWS understands a pressure test was the key to determining whether there was a leak and it passed that first test this evening.

The pipeline from the refinery to Wiri was reopened about 6pm. 

Customers of Refining NZ say they received notification this morning that the pipeline was temporarily shut down following an alarm from the pipeline monitoring system. The company has now confirmed the pipeline is fit for service and they restarted it this evening.

"The situation is different to that in September and at this moment, pending our investigation, we are hoping to be able to return to normal service later in the day," Refining NZ said in a statement this afternoon.

In September, the pipeline was ruptured by a digger in farmland at Ruakaka in Northland.

The pipeline was closed down for repairs, disrupting fuel supplies for a week and causing massive disruption to flights in and out of Auckland Airport.

Thousands of travellers were affected by flight cancellations and schedule changes and fuel was delivered by trucks and a navy ship.

Customers of Refining NZ said tonight that while today's outage was short-lived, there is likely to be some level of impact on ongoing fuel supplies. 

Following the outage in September, Refining NZ has been operating the pipeline at a reduced capacity to meet pipeline certification requirements, said Debi Boffa, Managing Director of BP Oil New Zealand and spokesperson for Refining NZ customers.

Coupled with today's outage the result is lower than usual stock levels at the Wiri terminal which supplies fuel to the industry and Auckland Airport, she said.

This comes at a time of high seasonal demand and each fuel company is individually working to put alternative supply arrangements in place to minimise any impact to customers," Ms Boffa said. 

If there are any fuel outages at service stations they are expected to be intermittent and short-lived, she said.