Refining NZ shrugs off $8.2m profit hit after oil pipeline failure

$6m repairing the pipeline, which failed on farmland near Ruakaka, close to the Whangarei, and lost $6.3m in processing fees and a further $2m in distribution fees attributable to the disruption to supply. Insurers had paid out $2.9m already on the refinery’s policy covering environmental damage.

Post said the company sees itself “as part of the solution on a pathway to 2050 carbon neutrality for the country”, and its $365m Te Mahi Hou expansion project at the Marsden Point refinery, completed in December 2015, was equivalent to “taking 60,000 Corollas off the road or the NZ public buying $4.8 billion worth of Tesla’s Model 3”.

In the next six years, “demand for petroleum products in Asia Pacific is expected to continue to outpace cap- acity growth and we are therefore cautiously optimistic about margins“, he said.

Post said the company was well set up for its refinery shutdown this year. The shutdown is running in stages from April 20 to June 8, with 39 days where the entire refinery is closed.

Refining NZ is spending $85m on the shutdown and it will have a financial impact of $30m.

“This is the major event of our year, its size is a once in every 15 years occurrence,” Post said. “For example, if you have not been able to get hold of scaffold recently, it is because we have 2,000 tonnes of it on site.”

“We continue with a strong growth agenda in 2018 including small optimisation projects, working on pipeline capacity, jet import and sulphur prilling,” Post said.

Chairman Simon Allen said the board was pleased that Post would remain at Refining NZ for the next few months to see through critical work including the 2018 planned maintenance shutdown and the government inquiry into the pipeline incident.

At the annual meeting, shareholders also voted to re-elect directors Vanessa Stoddart and Mark Tume, who had both retired by rotation, and to elect Deborah Boffa and Lindis Jones to the board.

— BusinessDesk