MSO Participant — Obliged Person · NZ-FUEL-DEF-0002

Layer 01 — The Stated Term

Who carries the MSO obligation

The legal definition of an obliged person under the Fuel Industry Act 2020.

A fuel industry participant that imports fuel into New Zealand and owns, operates, or has the right to draw fuel from a bulk storage facility — and who is therefore required to maintain a minimum stockholding under the Fuel Industry Act 2020.

The term "MSO Participant" is the plain-language shorthand for what the Act calls an "obliged person" — a fuel industry participant who meets both criteria that trigger the obligation. The two criteria must both be satisfied simultaneously: the entity must be an importer, and it must have access to bulk storage.

This dual requirement was deliberate. The policy intent was to capture the fuel companies that operate at scale in the wholesale layer of New Zealand's supply chain — not small distributors, not retailers, not end users. An entity that imports fuel but has no bulk storage access (a highly unusual situation) would not be obliged. An entity that has bulk storage but does not import (such as a storage operator who rents tank space) would also not be obliged.

The definition may be expanded by regulation in the future. If significant changes occur in the fuel supply chain — such as a large-scale domestic production facility for synthetic or green fuels — the government retains the power to bring new categories of participant into the obligation without new primary legislation.

Term Identity

NZ-FUEL-DEF-0002

Also called

Obliged Person

Type

Actor / Entity

Domain

Energy Security

Defined in

Fuel Industry Act 2020, s.53

Active from

1 January 2025

Current count

5 obliged persons

Two Conditions Required

Condition 1

Is a fuel importer — meaning the entity imports petrol, diesel, or jet fuel into New Zealand

AND

Condition 2

Owns, operates, or has the right to draw fuel from a bulk storage facility (≥1 million litres capacity)

Related Terms

Layer 02 — The Threshold

What triggers the obligation — and what doesn't

The 1-million-litre boundary and why it matters.

The critical threshold is bulk storage capacity of 1 million litres or more. This single number determines who is inside the MSO system and who is outside it. It was chosen to capture the large import-scale operators while excluding small distributors and retailers.

The effect is to concentrate the entire obligation on a very small number of companies — currently five — while leaving the downstream distribution network entirely outside the measurement boundary. This is both the system's strength (it is simple to administer and enforce) and its limitation (it measures only one layer of the fuel supply chain).

Obliged — inside the MSO

Imports fuel AND owns/operates a bulk terminal (≥1ML)
Imports fuel AND has contractual right to draw from a shared bulk terminal
Holds entitlement-agreement transferred stock from another obliged person

Not obliged — outside the MSO

Fuel retailer (service station owner) — no import function
Independent distributor who buys from an importer
Storage operator with ≥1ML tanks but no import function
Farm or industrial customer with on-site diesel tanks
Any importer with only sub-1ML storage access

An important nuance: the obligation applies per fuel type. A company may be an obliged person for petrol and diesel but not for jet fuel, if it does not import jet fuel. This is why Gull and TOSL — who import petrol and diesel but not jet fuel — have no jet fuel MSO obligation, while Z Energy, BP, and Mobil are obliged for all three fuel types.

The 1ML threshold may be reviewed in future regulatory changes. If the distribution of bulk storage capacity shifts significantly — for example, if smaller regional operators build new terminal capacity — the threshold may need adjustment to maintain the policy intent.

The Boundary Number

1,000,000

litres bulk storage capacity

The threshold that determines
inside vs outside the MSO system

Obligation by Fuel Type

Petrol

Z Energy, BP, Mobil, Gull, TOSL

Diesel

Z Energy, BP, Mobil, Gull, TOSL

Jet Fuel

Z Energy, BP, Mobil only

Gull and TOSL do not import jet fuel and therefore carry no jet fuel obligation.

Why This Boundary

The 1ML threshold aligns with the definition of a "bulk storage facility" in the regulations. It was chosen to capture import-scale operations while excluding smaller commercial tanks that are impractical to register and monitor centrally. The boundary is a policy convenience as much as a physical distinction.

Layer 03 — The Five Actors

Who they are in practice

The five companies currently obliged under the MSO — their scale, their infrastructure, their market position.

As of Q4 2025, five companies meet the dual criteria and are therefore MSO Participants. This is a remarkably small number. New Zealand's entire fuel security at the wholesale layer rests on five corporate entities — three global majors and two independent importers.

Z Energy

Subsidiary of Ampol (Australia)

Major · Largest NZ retailer

Petrol Diesel Jet Fuel

Marsden Point · Mt Maunganui · Wellington · Lyttelton · Wiri · + coastal tankers

~492 retail sites (Z + Caltex brands) · ~210 commercial supply accounts

bp p.l.c. · operates via NZ Oil Services Ltd (NZOSL)

Major · 8 terminal sites nationally

Petrol Diesel Jet Fuel

Mt Maunganui · Wellington · Lyttelton · Dunedin · Nelson · Napier · New Plymouth · Bluff

~250 retail sites · BP Connect brand · Air BP aviation · ~3,000 NZ employees

Mobil

ExxonMobil NZ Ltd

Major · 6 terminals · marine bunkering

Petrol Diesel Jet Fuel

Mt Maunganui · Wellington (Seaview) · Lyttelton · Woolston · Bluff · Wiri

~200 retail sites · only Heavy Fuel marine bunkering in NZ · 600ML+ Lyttelton annual throughput

Gull

Terminals NZ Ltd · independent

Independent · North Island focus

Petrol Diesel

Mt Maunganui only — 90ML confirmed capacity · single terminal model

~115 retail sites · 8% market share · 500ML+ annual volume · discount-focused model

TOSL

Timaru Oil Services Ltd · supplies Tasman Fuels exclusively

Independent · South Island regional

Petrol Diesel

Timaru terminal only · South Island supply chain

~3% market share · exclusively supplies related entity Tasman Fuels · regional distributor model

The concentration of the obligation among five entities is a structural feature. The three majors — Z Energy, BP, and Mobil — collectively handle all jet fuel imports and the majority of petrol and diesel. They also jointly own or share most of the major import terminal infrastructure. The MSO system, in practice, runs on the cooperation of three companies for its most critical fuel type.

Market Concentration

Petrol + Diesel market share

Z 40%

BP 25%

MOB 20%

GUL

Jet fuel market share (3 importers only)

Z 45%

BP 30%

MOB 25%

Shared Infrastructure

The three majors jointly own or share:
· Coastal Oil Logistics Ltd (ship scheduling)
· Wiri Oil Services Ltd (WOSL — Wiri terminal)
· Auckland Airport jet fuel infrastructure
· Pipeline access (Marsden Pt to Wiri)

Gull and TOSL are not party to any of these infrastructure sharing arrangements.

System Fragility Note

New Zealand's fuel security at the wholesale level depends on five corporate entities — and for jet fuel, only three. If any one of the three majors significantly reduces operations, the MSO system faces concentration risk that the current regulation was not designed to address.

Layer 04 — Compliance & Flexibility

How the obligation can be met — and shared

The reporting cycle, penalties for breach, and the entitlement agreement mechanism.

Each MSO Participant has a monthly compliance cycle. The obligation is calculated against each participant's own historical drawings, measured as a monthly average. The sequence runs as follows:

Jan

12-month
reference
period ends

4 months
before period

May

Compliance
period
begins

Obligation
now active

31 May

Compliance
period
ends

Monthly
average
calculated

21 Jun

Disclosure
due to
MBIE

21st of
following
month

The entitlement agreement is one of the most operationally significant features of the MSO framework. It allows one obliged person to transfer the right to count a volume of fuel stock to another obliged person for compliance purposes. This provides flexibility during temporary supply disruptions or storage constraints — but it also introduces complexity into understanding who is actually responsible for holding what.

Entitlement Agreement — how stock rights transfer

Transferor
e.g. Mobil
has surplus stock

→

transfers right
to count stock

Transferee
e.g. Gull
needs compliance

The physical fuel does not move. Only the right to count it for compliance purposes transfers. The transferee becomes the obliged person for that volume. The same stock cannot be counted twice — both parties must register the agreement with MBIE. Records must be kept for 7 years.

Breaches of the MSO carry civil pecuniary penalties — not criminal liability. The enforcement regime is designed to be flexible, with enforceable undertakings (compliance plans) available as an alternative to court proceedings. During the first two years of the obligation (2025–2026), obliged persons could apply for transitional arrangements if they were unable to immediately meet their obligations.

// Penalties for non-compliance

Corporate entity — breach of MSO

Up to $500,000

Individual — breach of MSO

Up to $100,000

Breach of information disclosure

Same scale

Alternative: enforceable undertaking

Compliance plan

Exit Requirements

An obliged person planning to stop importing fuel must give at least 2 months' notice to MBIE, including:

· Whether they will also cease operating MSO storage
· Reasons for ceasing imports
· Any implications for fuel resilience monitoring

This prevents sudden market exits that could create a supply gap without warning.

Exemption Grounds

The Minister for Energy may grant exemptions if exceptional circumstances prevent compliance:

· Natural disaster affecting storage facilities
· Crisis affecting international shipping routes

Exemptions are published in the NZ Gazette and tabled in Parliament. They cannot be granted quietly.

The Entitlement Risk

Entitlement agreements allow compliance obligations to be met without moving physical fuel. In a disruption scenario, an importer who has "lent" stock to another for compliance purposes may need to recall that right — creating competing claims on the same physical stock at exactly the moment it matters most.