Quote Originally Posted by SailorRob View Post
Nor, with all due respect you hit the nail on the head with the last sentence!

It's not because it's cheaper overseas, it's because it's cheaper to land refined fuel here in NZ.

The 'onerous agreements' have nothing to do with it with the exception they are getting a 143 million dollar subsidy to stay alive right now, without the agreement they were dead a long time ago.

Take all agreements away and you're left with the fact that you cannot ship crude to a beach in Northland, then turn it into a variety of high quality refined products and distribute around the country for less than you can pick up the phone and order finished product direct to NZ.

No different to any other commodity product or whatever. Good luck to importing raw materials and then manufacture into high quality commodity products here with a labor productivity rate of 60% of the OECD average and doing it cheaper.

Throw in having to operate under a quasi communist regime and then you're really screwed.
Seems obvious to me that there is not enough capacity in NZ to land all we need from overseas because if there was how could converting Marsden to an import terminal work? There would be no demand for it if we already had the capacity.
As for the subsidy, very generous I don't think. Without regulation and without these agreements the refinery could make much more.