Minimum stockholding obligations Ministerial exemptions

Ministerial exemptions

The Minister for Energy may grant an exemption from minimum stockholding obligations if exceptional circumstances beyond your reasonable control prevent, or will likely prevent, you from meeting your obligation.

The Ministry for Business, Innovation & Employment is responsible for administering Ministerial exemptions. We will receive your application, lead engagement regarding your application, and forward your application to the Minister to make a decision.

The criteria for an exemption are set out in section 59 of the Fuel Industry Act 2020.

Fuel Industry Act 2020 section 59 Exemptions from stockholding obligation(external link) — New Zealand Legislation

How to request an exemption

Before you start

Before you request an exemption, make sure you understand all the information you will need to provide. You should also review part 4 of the Fuel Industry Act 2020 and part 5 of the Fuel Industry Regulations 2021.

Fuel Industry Act 2020(external link) — New Zealand Legislation

Fuel Industry Regulations 2021(external link) — New Zealand Legislation

You may wish to seek independent advice before submitting your request.

Understanding the legislation is important because the threshold for granting an exemption for your minimum stockholding obligation is high.

Examples of the high threshold include:

• there must be exceptional circumstances beyond your reasonable control, and
• your application will be considered against whether the reason for granting an exemption to your minimum stockholding obligations outweighs the public interest of you continuing to meet your obligations.

Details of your request

We have provided an exemption request form below to help you understand how your application will be assessed and to support the submission of decision ready applications that can be progressed efficiently.

The form is optional but recommended.

If the Minister does not have enough information to be satisfied the statutory tests are met, requesting more can delay decisions on your proposed exemption.

In order to grant an exemption under s 59 of the Fuel Industry Act 2020, the Minister needs to be satisfied of, and take into account, the following matters.

Contact details

Provide a single contact point within your business who:

• can lead engagement with us, and
• who also has authority to act and make decisions on behalf of your business, including engagement regarding any conditions that may be imposed on an exemption.

Exceptional circumstances

To be granted an exemption, there must be exceptional circumstances outside your reasonable control. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• a natural disaster affecting fuel storage facilities, or
• a crisis affecting international shipping routes.

Your application will be expected to clearly explain how the exceptional circumstances are directly related to your inability to meet your minimum stockholding obligation. Exemption requests based on exceptional circumstances that do not have a clear link to your minimum stockholding obligations are unlikely to be eligible for exemption.

We suggest you include:

• a description of the exceptional circumstances and why they are beyond your reasonable control
• details of how the exceptional circumstances have affected your ability to meet your minimum stockholding obligation and how long they are expected to last.

Impact and control over the circumstances

Your application will be expected to quantify and describe how the relevant exceptional circumstances have impacted your ability to meet your minimum stockholding obligation. The Minister is also required to take into account your level of control over the circumstances, such as whether you have implemented mitigation measures and why they are not enough to help you avoid non-compliance.

We suggest you include:

• the impact of the exceptional circumstances on fuel imports and storage capacity in relation to your obligations
• details of the obligations you are not able to comply with and to what extent, such as the actual or estimated/projected days of cover and volumes
• how long you expect it will take to return to compliance and how you determined this timeframe
• the impact of your non-compliance on fuel resilience in all regions in New Zealand, such as any forecasting of reduced supply to specific regions within New Zealand
• whether and why you have limited control over the circumstances, and why you cannot avoid non-compliance.

Details of your requested exemption and rationale

You should clearly set out the details of the exemption you are requesting, for example, what fuel type, duration, and any proposed reduction in days’ worth of fuel stockholding (if relevant).

The details of your requested exemption will be compared against the other information you’ve provided, such as how long the exceptional circumstances are expected to last, and how long you forecast until you return to compliance.

In particular, the Minister is required to consider your requested exemption in terms of:

• whether your proposed exemption is justified in terms of the relevant statutory criteria, including whether there is good reason for granting the exemption that outweighs the interests of the public in you continuing to meet your minimum stockholding obligation
• ensuring your proposed exemption is not broader than necessary.

You may wish to provide comment addressing these specific statutory tests.

Supporting documents

We suggest you provide relevant evidence to support your statements and conclusions. Clear, supported information will facilitate a fast decision of your application.

A declaration

Please include a statutory declaration confirming all information provided in the request is true and correct to the best of your knowledge and that you are authorised to sign the application on behalf of your business.

How to submit your request

Contact us via email and we can help facilitate your request.

oilsecurity@mbie.govt.nz

How long requests take

Timeframes for processing, assessing and making decisions depend on a number of factors such as the number of requests we receive, the complexity of the issues raised in your application, the quality of the information provided with your application, and if the Minister considers imposing conditions on the exemption.

You should contact us as soon as you believe you may be at risk of not meeting your minimum stockholding obligation to discuss next steps.

Your obligation to comply with your minimum stockholding obligation continues to apply until and unless an exemption is granted.

Finalising exemptions

Exemptions are secondary legislation under the Legislation Act 2019 and may be disallowed by the House of Representatives.

If approved, Ministerial exemptions will go through finalisation, where they will be published, along with the reasons the exemption was granted, on this website and in the New Zealand Gazette Te Kāhiti o Aotearoa and presented to the House of Representatives.

Current exemptions

Ministerial exemptions will be published here.

There are no current exemptions in effect.