Liquid fuels use in New Zealand

In 2008 a project was started to investigate the liquid fuel supply chain in New Zealand and the completeness of our consumption statistics for liquid fuels.

Background to the report

The project's key finding was that the approach of surveying only New Zealand's major oil companies was not accurately describing our use of liquid fuels. This is due to the oil companies increasingly moving into a wholesale role and withdrawing from their retail and distribution operations.

As this has occurred, independent distributors of fuel have filled the gap in the market, by purchasing fuel from the oil companies and delivering this fuel directly to customers. These include farms, contractors, transport firms and other businesses. Clearly, not all of this fuel is being used on the roads.

In 2008, the then Ministry of Economic Development (MED) commenced the Annual Liquid Fuel Survey (ALFS). The ALFS seeks information from independent distributors to improve the quality of information about sectoral consumption of liquid fuels.

Download the report

Liquid Fuels Use in New Zealand — Nov 2008 [PDF, 463 KB]