NZRC, the publicly listed company which is majority owned by the Shell, Mobil, Caltex and BP oil companies, earlier this week announced it had approved the installation of an extra pumping capacity at Wellsford, approximately halfway along the 170km pipeline.
NZRC is also constructing a new pumping station near Huapai, northwest of Auckland.
Company general manager Thomas Zengerly said the project would increase the amount of products being transported into this country's largest city by 20%, to 2.4 million tonnes per annum.
The pipeline first pumped 1.5 million tonnes of products from 1986 and was last upgraded in 1999, when a NZ$13 million upgrade, a pumping station at Wellsford, increased that capacity to 2.0 million tonnes a year.
Zengerly said the latest planned upgrade meant Auckland's growing demand could be met by the pipeline, rather than by road or sea tankers, and so would not mean further traffic congestion in this country's city of sails.
