New Zealand: Jet fuel rations increased as government calls in navy to beat shortage

New Zealand will partially ease fuel rationing Thursday night, a spokesman for the country’s oil industry said, a sign that the five-day long fuel shortage that has caused air travel disruptions is subsiding. More than 120 flights have been cancelled this week in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, disrupting thousands of travellers each day, after the single privately owned pipeline that carries jet fuel from a refinery to the city’s airport was damaged. Air NZ said it expected flights to run as usual on Friday, with no cancellations for the first time since Sunday. Airline fuel allocations will rise to 50%, from 30%, at midnight on Thursday, said Andrew McNaught, manager for Mobil New Zealand Ltd and a spokesman for the customers of the country’s only oil refinery operator Refining NZ. Travel restrictions for government officials have been lifted. New Zealand’s government and oil industry have taken a series of measures to try to contain the crisis, from fuel rationing to calling on the military to help truck in supplies of fuel, and have set up an industry-government group to handle the fallout.<br/>