Gas supply to be restored to all customers by midday

Acting Minister of Energy and Resources, Hekia Parata, says all gas consumers should have their supply restored by midday following a gas leak on the Maui pipeline five days ago.

Welding on the damaged section of the pipeline, just north of New Plymouth, was completed on Friday. The pipe was tested rigorously yesterday and repressurised early this morning, which will see the gradual restoration of the last remaining consumers.

"I would like to thank all the sector for their collaborative efforts since the outtage began on Tuesday. The Vector team for working systematically, and safely, assessing and repairing the leak as quickly as possible; the Gas Industry Company for managing the regulations and working with gas retailers and users; the independent Critical Contingency Operator for managing supply.

"And, of course, the quarter of a million Kiwi homes that reduced their use to make it possible to spread the capacity of the second Vector pipeline that flowed throughout," says Ms Parata.

"It has been this collective effort that has seen the pipeline repaired and the outage managed in such a timely manner."

Gas supply to the upper North Island was disrupted after a ruptured seam on the Maui pipeline was discovered early Tuesday morning. The gas sector moved quickly to implement the management plan set out in the Gas Governance (Critical Contingency Management) Regulations 2008.

Under this plan the Gas Industry Company appoints a Critical Contingency Operator (CCO) who has the responsibility for managing the available gas supply by administering the critical contingency protocols.

The Maui pipeline is owned by Maui Developments Limited and operated by Vector Limited. This is the first problem on the Maui pipeline in its 30 years of operation.

"It has been and is a very reliable and resilient piece of infrastructure," says Ms Parata.

"New Zealand has an abundance of energy sources, this is perhaps a timely reminder that we all need to think about backup options."

Ms Parata says there will be an incident report and a formal industry-led review, as required by the regulations.