Pipe’s damage revealed
The extent of pipeline damage which crippled New Zealand air travel has been revealed by new photos.
They show the damage believed to have been caused by a digger to Refining NZ’s 170km Marsden Point, Northland to Wiri, Auckland fuel pipeline.
Meanwhile, investigations into what action to take against those responsible, for causing last Thursday’s break, resulting in 70,000 litres of jet fuel leaking, is about to begin.
Northland Regional Council is soon to shift priorities onto considering ‘‘further action’’ including ‘‘enforcement action’’.
A spokesman said the council has been busy helping clean up the fuel spill.
But ‘‘the council’s focus in the coming week or two will shift towards investigation of the circumstances leading up to the leak’’.
Earlier, the spokesman said the ‘‘regional council’s costs have not yet been tallied but, obviously, will run to at least several thousand dollars’’.
Refining NZ believes a digger blade scored the 30cm pipe, scraping away an anti-corrosion layer in an action that eventually led to the pipe break and the closure of the fuel line.
Auckland Airport had cut airlines’ fuel allocation by 70 per cent disrupting thousands of air traveller’s plans.
For a time, some Auckland stations ran out of 95-octane fuel.
Airline’s fuel allocation has now risen to 50 per cent of normal levels.
Infrastructure NZ chief executive Stephen Selwood slammed the pipeline’s failure.
‘‘We’ve seen too many incidents like this right around the country, the Penrose motorway overbridge, power line cuts .... . ’’
The pipeline rupture would probably cost the economy ‘‘tens of millions’’ of dollars, Selwood said.
University of Auckland law professor Bill Hodge believed Refining NZ, which estimates it has lost about $15 million because of the cut, could have a good lawsuit against whoever caused the leak. petrol