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Speaker 1: There is a plan to potentially boost our fuel storage capacity.

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Speaker 1: The Herald's Wellington business editor, Genative Cheriney has been looking

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Speaker 1: into this and is with us Hygiena Hi Heather. So

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Speaker 1: this is a plan that seems to have been pitched

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Speaker 1: by Channel Infrastructure, the ones who run the Marsden Point

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Speaker 1: oil refinery. Now they want to potentially increase their their

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Speaker 1: capacity for storage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right. Currently they have storage for about

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Speaker 2: three hundred million liters of fuel, but they also have

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Speaker 2: these tanks that are sitting there empty that could potentially

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Speaker 2: hold another three hundred and fifty million liters of fuel,

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Speaker 2: so pretty much it could potentially double its storage capacity.

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Speaker 2: The issue is, and this is what Channel has been

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Speaker 2: talking to the government about, is that those empty tanks

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Speaker 2: need to be refurbished and that would be a costly

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Speaker 2: and a time consuming process. But Channel has started talking

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Speaker 2: to the government to update them. Well, actually, if you know,

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Speaker 2: if the situation arises, we could look to you know,

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Speaker 2: get those tanks in a state so that they could

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Speaker 2: could hold more fuel from what I can gather as

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Speaker 2: it stands with the regulations and things in place at

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Speaker 2: the moment, that process could take about a year. To

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Speaker 2: eighteen months. So that's not going to solve the problem

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Speaker 2: here and now, but it seems like a worthy discussion

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Speaker 2: to have. You know, should we create more capacity to

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Speaker 2: hold more fuel because at the moment, the way things run,

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Speaker 2: it's pretty tight. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Does it sound like they want government funding?

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Speaker 2: So Channel hasn't directly asked for government funding, but it has,

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Speaker 2: I guess in updating the government on where it's at

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Speaker 2: and what it would cost to get these empty tanks refurbished.

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Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure it would welcome some government funding.

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Speaker 2: Shane Jones talk Term today, you know, and he's across this.

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Speaker 2: He said he genuinely, genuinely believed we needed more storage

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand, but you know, he needs to work

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Speaker 2: with finance mister Nicola Willis on that. And I talked

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Speaker 2: to Nicola Willis and she was pretty hesitant to suggest

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Speaker 2: the government was prepared to fork out to help refurbish

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Speaker 2: these tanks. You know, she said, well, Channel is a

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Speaker 2: commercial company, and you'd expect fuel importers like z Energy

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Speaker 2: and etc. To pay for the storage. That's currently how

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Speaker 2: it works. But you know, I feel like this is

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Speaker 2: a space to watch and the other thing they're looking

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Speaker 2: at is the regulations because as it stands at the moment,

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Speaker 2: you need like a bunt, like from what I can understand,

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Speaker 2: it's like a big wall or something around the tanks

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Speaker 2: to make sure the fuel doesn't leak. But building that

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Speaker 2: is the problem. So you know, could they loosen up

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Speaker 2: the rigs to get these tanks refurbished more quickly.

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Speaker 1: It's not like this is our only option, right because

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Speaker 1: when Methodex eventually shuts down, those tanks become available, don't they.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Now that's another thing that Shane Jones said

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Speaker 2: he took to the Port Tutanucky CEO about there could

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Speaker 2: be some storage capacity there. So you know, officials are

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Speaker 2: looking at this as well. From MB they're advising ministers.

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Speaker 2: It seems like there are a lot of public servants

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Speaker 2: running around talking to industry trying to you know, get

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Speaker 2: their heads around the levers that can be pulled. So

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Speaker 2: this might be something that needs to be fixed. Looking

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Speaker 2: further down the track, it's hard to see, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's hard to see these these tanks getting refurbished quickly.

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Speaker 2: But you know, who knows how long this whole thing

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Speaker 2: is going to drag on for?

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Speaker 1: Thank you was always really appreciate it, Joe, we'll talk

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Speaker 1: to you next week. Janetib Trainey The Herald's Wellington business

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Speaker 1: letters up for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen

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