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Limited Gas Made Available To Fonterra Operations

Wednesday 26 October 2011, 8:53PM

By Fonterra

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Vector has advised Fonterra that it is providing limited gas flows to some of Fonterra’s upper North Island sites. As a result Fonterra is working to get as many of these sites up and running as soon as possible.

The main Maui gas line is however still out of operation and the gas Fonterra will receive will be supplied through a smaller backup line and will be limited. This means Fonterra’s sites north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge (Maungaturoto, Kauri) as well as Tip Top will remain shut down.

Fonterra Managing Director Trade and Operations Gary Romano said it could be between 5 to 16 hours before those sites with access to the gas supply can start processing milk again.

“Given we are one of the 200 businesses receiving gas from this smaller line, we will need to restrict our use and scale back our processing capabilities to avoid gas supply being cut off again,” he said.

“As our sites come up and running we will need to process the milk currently in the silos at the sites but we also expect to be able to collect and process milk from some farmers in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty from tonight. Our Service Centre will contact those farmers whose milk will be collected this evening.”