The Government has announced it has met an international obligation to keep stocks of oil in reserve to meet emergencies.
Under rules set by the International Energy Agency, New Zealand is required to hold 90 days of oil use in reserve in case of a crisis.
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee says this obligation has been achieved for 2010.
However, the actual quantity being stored is much less than before.
New Zealand is producing more oil from its own oil wells than it did, so it needs to keep less in tanks.
Mr Brownlee says domestic production has reduced the cost of storage to less than a fifth of what it was three years ago.
The emergency oil was orginally intended to be held in New Zealand, but the previous Labour government negotiated to hold it in tanks in Australia, Japan, Britain and the Netherlands to reduce the cost.
