Labour was to blame for the closure of the Marsden Point Oil Refinery which would save us during an oil shortage.

On RNZ's Morning Report on March 9, 2026, Winston Peters claimed that oil supply issues stemming from the USA-Israel-Iran war could have been mitigated had Marsden Point Oil Refinery still been operating. He blamed Labour for its closure. Elsewhere, he was calling the closure "economic treason," "politically and economically suicidal," and suggesting it was "deliberately shut down, with the government's connivance."

Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones has made similar claims, saying Labour "fatally wounded the country's fuel security" citing the loss of "700 million litres of storage capacity."

In fact, the refinery ceased operations in April 2022 as a decision by its private shareholders (Channel Infrastructure, whose consortium included BP, Mobil and Z Energy) on profitability grounds, after then-Energy Minister Megan Woods' Cabinet paper found "no strong case" for a government loan or subsidy on fuel-security grounds. The refinery only ever processed imported crude, mainly into diesel and aviation fuel, and the site now operates solely as an import storage terminal. New Zealand-sourced oil's viscosity meant it was sent to Australia for refining instead and was never refined at the Marsden Point Oil Refinery.

At no point was the Labour government the decision-maker behind the closure.