Delay for inquiry into fuel crisis

A year on from the Auckland fuel pipeline leak that cancelled scores of flights from Auckland airport, the Government has yet to follow through with a promised independent inquiry.

Energy Minister Megan Woods acknowledged she had not yet taken a draft of the terms of reference to the Cabinet. That would happen in ‘‘coming weeks’’, she said.

National Party energy spokesman Jonathan Young said the Government had promised an inquiry but was now ‘‘sitting on its hands’’.

Labour first said an inquiry was warranted when it was in opposition, raising the question of whether a second fuel pipeline might be needed to improve the resilience of Auckland’s fuel supply.

Woods has forecast that an inquiry will probably take about nine months.

Young said New Zealand couldn’t afford to duplicate the infrastructure and the Government had probably come to realise that the private sector was best placed to assess how best to address any risks.

Refining NZ blamed the pipeline failure on damage caused by an asyet unidentified digger driver, likely prospecting for kauri logs, in or around 2014. Several months later it emerged the pipeline had an ‘‘emergency shutdown’’ two hours before it broke on September 14 – after a maintenance worker accidentally triggered a fire alarm at a pumping station – which may have been the final straw.

Two of the three pumps along the pipeline then failed to restart when the refinery began pumping fuel back through the pipeline about 20 minutes later.

That caused a pressure rise at some points, including at Ruakaka where the already-weakened pipeline broke later that morning spilling 70,000 litres of jet fuel, according to a report engineers WorleyParsons provided to Northland Regional Council.

It also emerged that Refining NZ had increased the pressure of the pipeline the previous month.