Critical Infrastructure Marsden Point Oil Refinery. Whangarei. New Zealand. Shut down by Woke Globalist Radical Jacinda Ardern… posturing on the Global stage regarding Anti-oil/ Anti-coal Climate agenda.
Matthew Horncastle
@matt_horncastle
Most New Zealanders have never heard of Marsden Point.
They should.
Marsden Point was New Zealand’s only oil refinery. It could take crude oil from anywhere in the world and refine it into petrol, diesel and jet fuel right here in New Zealand.
At its peak it processed about 135000 barrels of crude oil per day. A large share of the country’s transport fuel passed through that refinery.
It was not just an industrial site. It was strategic infrastructure.
If global supply chains were disrupted, New Zealand still had the ability to refine fuel ourselves.
In 2022 we shut it down.
The refinery was converted into a fuel import terminal. Instead of refining crude oil here, we now rely entirely on importing finished petrol and diesel from overseas refineries.
The argument was simple.
Refining fuel locally was slightly more expensive. Environmental pressure also played a role. So the decision was made that New Zealand would simply import refined fuel instead.
That logic works in a perfectly stable world.
But the world is not stable.
There is now a major war in the Middle East, the region that produces a huge share of the world’s oil and sits across some of the most important energy shipping routes on Earth.
New Zealand no longer has the ability to refine crude oil.
We rely on tankers arriving from overseas.
If those supply chains are disrupted we do not simply turn Marsden Point back on. It is gone.
Energy security used to be something serious governments understood. Countries built refineries, maintained fuel reserves and planned for worst case scenarios because modern societies run on energy.
No fuel means no trucks.
No trucks means no food distribution.
No aviation.
No construction.
No functioning economy.
Civilisation quite literally runs on diesel.
This is a reminder that the real world still exists.
Serious countries make serious decisions about strategic infrastructure. Sometimes those decisions are unpopular. Sometimes they are not fashionable.
But adults understand that ideology does not power a country.
Energy does.
And energy security matters.
Matthew Horncastle
@matt_horncastle
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