There will be a full scale inquiry into the security of New Zealand's fuel supply months after a pipe cut the Marsden Refinery to Auckland pipeline.

The pipeline, which supplies petrol, diesel and jet fuel from the Marsden Point Refinery to the Wiri Oil Terminal in South Auckland, was shut down for 10 days following a leak on 14 September 2017.

It supplies about 95 per cent of Auckland's total fuel, including all of Auckland International Airport's jet fuel.

 

The pipeline was briefly shut down again on Sunday after a monitoring alarm was falsely set off.

Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says the inquiry will investigate the cause of the September outage and how fuel supplies can be secured in the future.

"The Refinery to Auckland Pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure for our country," Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods said today.

"While this work is undertaken we've also instructed officials to investigate short term ways to improve resilience, as well as to ensure all parties involved have effective response plans in place to enable them to respond quickly in the event of any potential future outages," she said.

An independent Government inquiry will be able to compel evidence and access to relevant information. The terms of reference will be established early next year, along with independent inquirers.