Petrol plentiful despite quake

  • Breaking
  • 24/02/2011

Oil companies are urging people not to panic and stock up on petrol after Tuesday's devastating earthquake because there is no shortage of supply in Christchurch.

There have been unprecedented demands for petrol with some service stations reporting four times as many customers as normal.

"In some cases the queues are a kilometre long at service stations which are not even open....so there is some irrational behaviour out there," a Shell spokesman told Radio New Zealand.

"You do not need to be stock piling petrol now."

So far, 14 of 24 Shell petrol stations had been re-opened.

Caltex spokeswoman Sharon Buckland said people did not need to buy fuel they did not need.

"The anxiety is understandable, for many people their mobility to get around...is a critical part of their sense of control of what's going on there."

But it was not necessary to stockpile. "We have enough fuel for people."

Caltex had 16 of 19 stations open. BP had re-opened 11.

Civil Defence minister John Carter said this morning that he had not heard of any service stations taking advantage of the situation by putting up prices.

NZPA

source: newshub archive