Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says New Zealand is ‘not close’ to bringing in oil reserves after the attack on Saudi fields.

“We would have to see prices rise by about $20 per barrel in order for some of those strategic reserves to be released. So we are not close to that.”

Minister Woods told Q+A, “we've got basically a month's worth of oil, crude, that is held offshore that we can bring in. So it’s that forward planning, really, that we can activate.”

The Minister says the government will not relax the regional fuel tax while Saudi Arabia restores its oil supply.

“It’s not something we are considering. And as I said, actually, we are nowhere near some of the price per barrels that we have seen even in very recent times –

The fact of the matter is that we still have to pay for our roading infrastructure and our transport infrastructure.”

The Minister says she is waiting more information from the Saudi oil Minister tomorrow.

Please find the interview here.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza

Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website which is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of how Kiwis alerted the rest of the world to the genocide in Rwanda. How times have changed ...

In 2023, the government is clutching its pearls because senior Labour MP Damien O’Connor has dared suggest that Gaza’s civilian population - already living under apartheid and subjected to sixteen years of an illegal embargo, and now being herded together and slaughtered indiscriminately amid the destruction of their homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals - are also victims of what amounts to genocide. More