New Zealand oil spill response strategy - Maritime New Zealand

Spill Likelihood
The likelihood of a marine oil spill has been modelled using information from the oil and transport
industry in New Zealand and depicts regional information on spill potential (see map below), average
frequency of a serious incident, expected number of spills per year, estimates of the oil spilled into the
sea per year and the return period of a spill of a given size.
The model generates information that will inform both the setting of the Oil Pollution Levy (OPL) and
the operational decisions of Maritime NZ.
In 2002/03 a total of 13 million tonnes of crude oil, condensates and petroleum products were
transferred to and from tankers at New Zealand ports - creating around 600 cargo transfers. Five
million tonnes of imported crude oil were unloaded at the Marsden Point refinery in around 50
shipments and 590,000 tonnes of bunker fuels and lube oils were loaded in over 3,000 bunkering
operations at New Zealand’s main ports.
Since the last risk assessment in 1998, larger container vessels have been introduced on services
between New Zealand, USA and Europe. There has also been significant traffic growth in regional
ports such as Tauranga and Napier, with new deepwater berths built at Marsden Point and Picton.
Cruise vessel activity has increased with newer and larger vessels regularly visiting New Zealand during
the cruise season.
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