The Government will announce a new commercial deal to get additional fuel stock into the country in the coming days, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.
Speaking to RNZ from the US, Willis said the deal would be a "similar commercial arrangement" to one pursued by Australia, which was underwriting the delivery of fuel in a deal where the petrol companies still buy it, but the government takes on the financial risk of shipments that might otherwise be too expensive.
"The form of the commercial arrangement is something we will be announcing in the coming days. I can confirm that we have approached this so as to minimise the fiscal risk to the taxpayer but also ensure that we can have that reliable extra buffer in the country."
Willis said an extra 90 million litres of additional storage capacity would be available at Marsden Point by the end of May.
National's Chris Bishop said the Government was "planning for the worst", as Labour's Keiran McAnulty called for a more upfront approach to the fuel plans. (Source: Breakfast)
But, until the Strait of Hormuz was open, fuel prices would remain high, Willis said.
During the interview Willis also spoke about her trip to Washington DC and said she had met with the acting chairperson of US President Donald Trump's council of economic advisors.
"I shared with him the very negative impact the conflict in the Middle East has had on the New Zealand economy already. I asked him to be aware that their actions have implications well beyond their own shores and well beyond the Middle East.
"They acknowledged they are not able to give certainty about how enduring a ceasefire will be. But they did acknowledge that this is having an impact on many countries."
Willis said New Zealand's position on the war was that we were still calling for the implementation of a ceasefire in full, and were committed to playing a role in achieving that.
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