The Closing of Marsden Point Oil Refinery

By Olivia Pierson
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Many oil refineries around the world are closing. Marsden Point in Northland is just one, but it happens to be New Zealand's only one, capable of delivering 70% of our country’s fuel needs to a small population of just 5 million.

Twenty years ago, Australia had eight refineries which met the domestic fuel needs of the country, today it has only two left, which have both been underwritten by the Australian government in the name of fuel security.

The refineries are closed and turned into fuel-import terminals and storage facilities because they’re considered to be no longer “economically viable.” But that’s debatable and no one can say that the world-wide Covid lockdowns would not have had a major influence on that.

Brad Flutey, who lives in Northland NZ, heads an ongoing protest called “The Dig In at Marsden” in order to make people aware that our country is losing its only facility for the refining of oil and all the by-products which together include: jet fuel, diesel, petrol, bitumen, carbon for food, drinks & horticulture and sulphur for fertiliser.  As Flutey discusses in the clips below crude oil is 100% regenerative. 

So why would Channel Infrastructure, the company which now owns the Marsden Point facility, so militantly continue in its mission to close it down during a world wide energy crisis, which is fast becoming a world wide food shortage crisis, as farms depend on energy? We’re watching in real time the lesson Europe will now learn from being so beholden to Russia for its gas and oil.  President Trump seriously warned Europe's then leaders that it was crazy to do so at the 2019 G7, but they ignored him.

For those of us already well down the Clown World-runs-things rabbit-hole, who see the diabolical pattern of total sabotage to our civilisation and way of life coming from the unholy alliance between governments and big global corporates, it comes as no surprise to us that Flutey questions whether this has been done on purpose.

It may also make more sense when one considers that Channel Infrastructure make this statement on their website under ‘Community & Sustainability.'

Our commitment:

Channel Infrastructure not only takes responsibility for, and commits to, reducing our direct greenhouse gas emissions but recognises our responsibility to utilise our infrastructure to facilitate decarbonisation beyond our operations, and across New Zealand’s transport sector. It is our ambition to keep Aotearoa moving towards a greener future, and to play an enabling role in this future by utilising the full potential of our infrastructure and the Marsden Point site to support decarbonisation efforts.
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Channel Infrastructure is committed to doing its part to align with the Paris Agreement target to keep warming well below 2 degrees and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. Our commitments to taking action to address climate change are set out in our Climate Change Position Statement.

​Decarbonisation. Now there’s a sinister term. We humans are made of carbon, we also breathe, burp and fart it out for a lifetime. All life is made from carbon, it greens our planet, so ‘decarbonisation' should be properly viewed as a repulsively anti-life concept. We've come to expect this kind of euphemistic lunacy from the green-minded, and they have nothing to do with real and rational conservationism which loves, values and protects living things, including ourselves.

​Brad Flutey and his “Dig In” team have been holding the line at Marsden Point right throughout this wildly stormy winter (over 100 days) with a view to saving the refinery and making it operational again. Considering that a majority of our population is now living through some very tough times where relying 100% on imported fuel from a wider world wobbling on all of its moral axes - from Great Resets to kinetic wars - having our own refinery for fuel security and a large measure of energy independence is National Survival 101, and that’s why it will be denied us unless we fight for it. The same goes for our farmers, growers and food supply lines. It barely matters which government is in power anymore, the tracks have been laid without any opposition. It’s down to the people to provide for themselves in every way they can, however, fuel remains difficult.

Here’s Flutey discussing the issues with Craig, a former senior operator of Marsden Point Refinery, in their first fireside chat a month ago:

Here’s Flutey and Craig having their second fireside chat one week ago, about all things refinery related: 

You can follow Brad Flutey’s heroic efforts in his mission on this website: Dig In at Marsden.

"Our Nation paid to construct Marsden Point Oil Refinery so that it may guard us against the inflationary effects of geopolitical turmoil (read more on the refinery history here). With geopolitical turmoil erupting in the Ukraine, and the potential for it to erupt in the South China sea. With China threatening Taiwan, we cannot afford to rely solely on refined fuel from abroad.” - Brad Flutey