Digger blamed for aviation fuel leak

A jet fuel leak which has cancelled more than 20 flights out of Auckland Airport could take up to two weeks to fix.

The Refinery Auckland Pipeline – which carries jet fuel, petrol and diesel directly from the oil refinery at Marsden Point in Northland to tanks in Wiri, South Auckland – has been out of action since Thursday.

Auckland Airport spokesman Simon Lambourne confirmed that oil companies were limiting the amount of fuel available to airlines.

Refining NZ spokesman Greg McNeill said the 168km pipeline was stopped about 2.30pm on September 14 after monitoring picked up a drop in pressure in the supply.

A helicopter was dispatched and discovered a leak of jet fuel 8km south of the refinery near Ruakaka.

‘‘We have been doing a recovery and repair operation ... [crews are] excavating around the pipeline so we can see what damage there may be. That’s nearly complete.’’

The pipeline would take between 10 and 14 days to fix, McNeill said. Experts would decide on how best to repair the leak. Customers – BP, Z Energy and Mobil – had been told of the issue on Thursday, he added.

Refining NZ would also have given a ‘‘heads-up’’ to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Energy Minister Judith Collins’ office ‘‘on the day’’. But the company did not know how long it would take to repair.

McNeill said a fix could be 10 to 14 days away because of the difficult access to the site near Ruakaka where the pipeline had been cut, and the need to have repairs properly certified. ‘‘The key thing here is safety of operations.’’

It was likely Refining NZ would first operate the pipeline at 70 per cent of capacity until it knew the repairs had been successful, he said.

It appeared the pipeline had been damaged by a digger, but McNeill could not comment on who might carry the can financially. ‘‘Our first task it to get the repair done safely.’’

Prime Minister Bill English said he had a received a highlevel briefing on the issue early yesterday. Ministers, including Collins, had been instructed to work with the companies

‘‘Our first task it to get the repair done safely.’’

Refining NZ spokesman Greg McNeill

affected.

‘‘My understanding is that it’s the sort of problem that would require government agencies and oil companies to work together,’’ the prime minister said.

English didn’t want to speculate on the likely impacts of the jet fuel shortages. The Government would offer all the assistance it could to the companies affected, he said.

Lambourne said some flights would be impacted and passengers should check the Auckland Airport website for updates.

A statement from Air New Zealand said it was ‘‘working through the implications for aircraft operations’’, while Jetstar spokeswoman Kate Millar said it was not yet known how many of the airline’s flights would be affected.