Diesel-related burglaries more than doubled in April compared with the same month last year, figures obtained by 1News reveal, as fresh pressure on global fuel supplies raises fears prices could climb again.
The increase came as diesel prices surged earlier this year and as fresh pressure on global fuel supplies raises fears prices could climb again.
Police recorded 237 diesel-related burglaries across New Zealand in April 2026, compared with 94 in April 2025.
The rise was also rapid within the first four months of this year.
There were 91 diesel-related burglaries recorded in January, 95 in February and 131 in March, before the number jumped to 237 in April.
Police told 1News the earlier surge was significant enough to change how it monitored fuel-related crime, with a new weekly report established to track it.
The figures come as farmers and businesses that store large quantities of diesel are being urged to consider how well their fuel is protected.
'Pretty ballsy'
Southland farmers David and Kathy Wilson know how quickly that fuel can disappear.
Earlier this year, CCTV at Wilson's Vege Stall captured thieves targeting a diesel truck at around 6.30am.
David Wilson said he arrived at the business to open up and immediately noticed something was wrong.
"I could sort of smell diesel," he said.
The thieves had bored a hole into the bottom of the truck's fuel tank, with CCTV indicating another vehicle was nearby.
"We know that there was a truck taking the fuel and there was a car sitting on the side of the road watching," Wilson said.
His wife Kathy described the early-morning theft on a state highway as "pretty ballsy".
The couple had filled the truck with diesel the previous night.
But they soon discovered their business was not the only one being targeted.
"There was quite a few that very weekend that around Winton got hammered," Kathy Wilson said.
"You [were] just regularly hearing of farms having the tractors, the diesel tanks, you know, drilled and yeah, it's all over the place."
The theft also left the couple facing more than just the cost of the missing fuel. Their truck was off the road for around two weeks after the tank was damaged.
Farms turning to monitoring tech
Levno monitors fuel on almost 8000 farms around New Zealand, using sensors that can alert operators within seconds when fuel levels change.
Chief executive Oscar Ellison said the company's own data showed a jump in suspicious activity during the same period police recorded rising burglaries.
"We saw a lot of what we call suspicious withdrawals," he said.
"These are withdrawals that are happening, say in the middle of the night, when withdrawals don't normally happen at that site, so we saw about a 30% uptick."
Ellison said the suspicious activity was not always the work of unknown offenders arriving on a farm.
"Often the amount taken is a small amount, say 10 or 20 litres and when we talk to farmers and investigate those, quite often it is somebody known to the farmer," he said.
"It might be a farm worker or even the son or daughter of the farmer."
At the other end of the scale, Ellison said Levno had detected suspicious withdrawals of more than 500 litres - representing thousands of dollars worth of fuel.
Diesel prices under renewed pressure
The chief of a US energy investment firm says the price increase for diesel had been "even more significant than the rise in oil prices". (Source: BNZ Business Breakfast) (Source: Breakfast)
The concern now is that conditions behind the earlier spike could return. Oil and diesel markets are under pressure again amid the Iran conflict and wider disruption to global energy supplies. Brent crude closed Friday at US$94.39 a barrel, while the US diesel "crack spread" — the gap between crude and diesel prices — hit a record US$102.20 a barrel this week.
Pickering Energy Partners founder Dan Pickering told BNZ Business Breakfast diesel has risen even faster than oil, driven by reduced refining capacity and tighter supply.
"Diesel moves a lot of goods around the world," he said, meaning higher prices flow into freight, farming and food costs. Reuters reported this week that farmers are among the hardest hit, given their reliance on diesel for tractors and harvesters.
For the Wilsons, another price rise means absorbing the cost.
"We can't double the price of our vegetables to go with the cost, so you just keep wearing it," Kathy Wilson said.
After their theft, she said, they're taking no chances with what's left in their tanks.
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