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Kaikohe fuel dilemma unacceptable

Monday 8 June 2009, 1:27PM

By Far North District Council

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KAIKOHE

Far North Mayor Wayne Brown is angry that the Kaikohe community is going to be left without a retail fuel outlet for more than two months because of a lack of co-ordination between fuel companies.


"These multi-nationals traditionally have been happy to work in a co-operative manner when it suits their purposes, but when it comes to looking after small communities like Kaikohe they apparently couldn't care less," he said today.


He was commenting on a situation at Kaikohe in which both major retail fuel outlets will be closed for a minimum of eight weeks.


The Shell outlet at Kaikohe closed about two weeks ago for a major refit and is not expected to be back on stream until late August or early September, and this week the Caltex outlet announced it will also close for urgent repairs to its bulk storage tanks for eight weeks from June 29.


"I find it extraordinary that the two companies haven't bothered to talk to each to avoid a situation in which a sizeable community is going to be left without petrol for two and possibly up to three months.


"This is a very poor example of industry practice. I can imagine the community reaction if say Woolworths and Foodstuffs decided to shut down their outlets at the same time to carry out renovations.


"They (the oil companies) seem to have the ability to co-ordinate and co-operate when it comes to sharing facilities such as the oil refinery in which they are both shareholders. How come this level of inter-action wasn't also possible at Kaikohe.


He said Caltex had known it had major problems with its storage tanks for several months but had apparently opted to do nothing about it until after the Shell outlet's intention to close for major renovations was announced.


"I'm highly sceptical of the way this has all come about, and would encourage Caltex to have another look at its options," he said.


The closures will mean the closest petrol outlets to Kaikohe will be at Kerikeri, Moerewa, Rawene or Okaihau.