22 June 2021
Ref: OIA 2021-2399
Alan William Preston
[FYI request #15579 email]
Tēnā koe Alan
Thank you for your email of 26 May 2021 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following information:
1. Please quantify the amount (barrels) of oil ( petroleum product) New Zealand is
currently (May 2021) consuming (quantity over period of time i.e. day/month/year)
2. The total NZ$ value for the total unrefined (imported) oil
3. The total NZ$ value for the total unrefined (locally produced) oil
4. The NZ$ retail value of the total amount of refined products - especially petroleum /
diesel that fuel our transport fleet - that are consumed domestically.
Our response to your request is outlined below.
1. Please quantify the amount (barrels) of oil ( petroleum product) New Zealand is currently (May
2021) consuming (quantity over period of time i.e. day/month/year)
This information can be found at the following link on MBIE’s website:
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-statistics-and-
modelling/energy-statistics/oil-statistics/. The most current data MBIE holds on New Zealand’s oil
consumption is located under the heading ‘Data tables for oil’ in the spreadsheet
Data tables for oil [XLSX,
1.5 MB]. The relevant tabs within the spreadsheet for the information you seek are labelled
‘Annual_mmbbls’ and ‘Quarterly_mmbbls’. Therefore, I am technically refusing this aspect of your
request under section 18(d) of the Act, as the information sought is publicly available.
2. The total NZ$ value for the total unrefined (imported) oil
This information (as at April 2021) can be found at the following link on Stats NZ’s website:
http://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/Default.aspx. Therefore, I am technically refusing this aspect of your
request under section 18(d) of the Act, as the information sought is publicly available. To access the
information at the linked location, you must follow this folder pathway:
Imports and exports
Imports – Summary Data – IMP
MBIE1376631
Key Stats 7.06 - Value of principal imports - by commodity - vfd (SH) (Monthly)
Once you have navigated to this location, select the ‘crude petroleum’ oil series and the appropriate
months.
Stats NZ have instructions on using infoshare that might be useful to locate the information you seek
http://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/Help/browse.asp#use-browse.
3. The total NZ$ value for the total unrefined (locally produced) oil
This information is publicly available at the following link on Stats NZ’s website:
http://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/Default.aspx. Therefore, I am technically refusing this aspect of your
request under section 18(d) of the Act, as the information sought is publicly available. Almost all of New
Zealand’s domestically produced crude oil is exported (and MBIE dos not hold additional information on
the NZ dollar value of domestically produced oil). As such, to access the information at the linked
location, you must follow this folder pathway:
Imports and exports
Exports – Summary Data – EXP
Level of Processing (4 digit) - Exports (Monthly)
Once you have navigated to this location, select the ‘crude petroleum’ series and the appropriate
months.
Stats NZ have instructions on using infoshare that might be useful to locate the information you seek
http://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/Help/browse.asp#use-browse.
4. The NZ$ retail value of the total amount of refined products - especially petroleum / diesel that
fuel our transport fleet - that are consumed domestically.
Any answer we give to this question would either be incomplete – due to MBIE not having access to the
data in the first place – or would be based off of information that is already in the public domain.
While MBIE collects the quantities of refined petroleum/diesel products for New Zealand, we do not
collect the retail value of domestically consumed refined oil products, and this is not recorded or
published by a central government agency. I must therefore refuse the aspect of this question relating to
transport fleets under section 18(g)(i) of the Act as we do not hold the information sought, and we do not
believe it is held by another agency subject to the Act.
Information on the retail value of domestically consumed refined oil products can be found at:
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-statistics-and-
modelling/energy-statistics/energy-prices/. The relevant spreadsheet is called ‘Energy prices’, and is
found under the
Price data tables heading.
I must therefore refuse this aspect of the request under section 18(d) of the Act, as information relating
to the retail value of domestically consumed refined products (excluding complete data on transport
fleets) is already publicly available.
Should you seek further discussion on MBIE energy data, you may also want to correspond with us via
this inbox
: [email address]. You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information
about how to make a complaint is availab
le at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802
602.
Nāku noa, nā
Daniel Griffiths
Manager – Markets, Evidence and Insights
Digital, Data & Insights
