Report: 2017 fuel pipeline rupture could have been worse

Turning now to a report released this morning about the rupture of Auckland's fuel pipeline in September 2017 which caused widespread fuel shortages and forced the cancellation of flights out of Auckland Airport. The 170-kilometre pipeline, which runs from Marsden Point in the north to Wiri in the south, was struck by an errant digger driver searching for swamp kauri some three years prior to the rupture. It leaked jet fuel into rural properties and stopped the supply of fuel into Auckland for 10 days. Now a report, commissioned by the government, found that the consequences of the rupture could have been far worse than they were.