Like all nations, New Zealand is navigating the looming energy crisis arising from the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and its retaliations.
It is particularly vulnerable to price and availability shocks, given it imports all petrol, diesel and jet fuel and sits in the South Pacific at the end of the supply chain.
Prime Minister Chris Luxon is no stranger to these challenges, given his past role as Air New Zealand chief executive.
"I've been through fuel crises before in my former life," he told reporters in Wellington on Monday.
"I can tell you, it ain't pleasant trying to run an airline with 30 per cent of the fuel you need for several months.
"So it's really important we get our head in a mindset sense, into where this thing could go."
The NZ government has also devised a four-stage escalation protocol for the crisis, which places the country at the initial "monitor" stage.
In-country stocks of petrol and diesel have improved in the past week, standing at 27.9 days of petrol, 21.7 days of diesel and 25.3 days of jet fuel.
Similar amounts of each fuel are also in transit to NZ, giving Mr Luxon a degree of confidence.
"This is not COVID 2.0. People are not going to be sitting at home baking sourdough," he told Newstalk ZB.
"The kids are going to school. It's business as usual at the moment."
Mr Luxon said Kiwis should be "reassured" by the current situation.
"We are doing what we said we would do, which is secure fuel supply. We have ample stocks on hand," he said.
"We are meeting our minimum stock holding obligations. We have seen no signs yet from our oil importers that actually there are any challenges or issues with that. That's great."
The government is exploring "additional purchase of stocks through to June", as well as new diesel storage facilities at Marsden Point, an oil refinery shuttered in 2022.
However, it won't be following the Australian route of subsidising fuel to ease cost-of-living concerns.
The average price of a litre of unleaded 91 was $NZ3.42 ($A2.86) on Monday, according to aggregator website Gasly - up 36 per cent in March.
Diesel has risen by 86 per cent to $NZ3.44 ($A2.82).
While the Australian government announced a $2.55 billion plan to halve the fuel excise for the next three months, Mr Luxon has dismissed that option as bad policy.
"It's poorly targeted. It actually benefits high-income households and it actually encourages fuel use when it's constrained," he said.
"We're doing everything we can to minimise the impacts on increasing inflation and rising debt."
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