New Zealand’s fuel stocks remain well above minimum requirements and within normal ranges, with regular shipments still arriving on schedule as of 25 May 2026. That is according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), whose twice-weekly fuel stock and shipping update has monitored supply through the disruption response, which was stood up after conflict in the Middle East unsettled global fuel markets.
The figures reached the timber sector through the latest newsletter of the Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association of New Zealand (WPMA), whose chief executive Mark Ross pointed members to the government data. The update follows Ross’s earlier warning that the same fuel shock had put the country’s wood processors at risk.
MBIE’s most recent published snapshot counted 13 fuel ships at sea, with days’ cover of 54 for petrol, 46 for diesel, and 55 for jet fuel, all comfortably above the minimum stockholding obligation. Fuel importers have given confirmed orders running to late June, with planned orders stretching into early August.
“Fuel supply into New Zealand remains stable and onshore and incoming stocks are sufficient,” the ministry said.
MBIE reports there is no need for New Zealanders to change how they buy fuel, with fuel companies flagging no material issues across future shipments and feeding officials immediate updates on any disruption. Under the Fuel Response Plan, New Zealand remains in Phase One, the lowest tier of the government’s escalation framework, and the setting that applies whilst supply runs normally.
From 20 May, the ministry began publishing charts of stock movements since the response began, noting the rises and falls reflect normal shipping patterns rather than disruption and would look much the same without the conflict.
For an industry that runs its harvesting fleets, log transport and mills on diesel, the supply picture weighs as heavily as the price, and the cost side has bitten hard, with a Middle East-driven diesel spike to NZD $2.34 per litre wiping more than 30 per cent of log volumes from the country’s export ports. MBIE’s 46 days of diesel cover and confirmed orders to late June leave New Zealand at Phase One, with no reported disruption to the shipments the sector depends on.
