By the early 90’s NZRC was in a sound, cost competitive position. Refinery shares had been largely unaffected by the 1987 crash – mainly being held by corporate and private owners who were either long term investors or had a closer interest in the Refinery (eg the oil majors). Through deregulation the Refinery had maintained its primary position supplying the domestic market and through the new processing arrangements had become a profitable business. A consequence of this strong position and the improved operational performance that followed the start up teething troubles, was an increased interest in Refinery shares. Petrocorp bought a significant parcel of NZRC shares and the share priceincreased from around a dollar a share at the time of the crash (1987) to a peak of around $42 in 1993. Investment decisions led the company to pay out surplus cash reserves as dividend and the share price fell to the current range of $10-25 per share.

Initial Environmental Pressures

Another major debate during the 1990’s was the removal of the lead additive from gasoline. Regular gasoline was mandated as lead-free in the early 1990’s and a tax regime encouraged a reduced lead content in premium gasoline from that time. Options for making lead free premium gasoline were studied including investment in a $115 million Penex isomerisation plant,The isomerisation project did not eventuate and unleaded premium gasoline was introduced on 1 January 1996. The introduction of unleaded premium gasoline became headline news with many older vehicles being affected by the change in composition and led to the Government legislating an aromatics specification – one of the first in the world to do so.

General environmental issues have always been of concern to the Refinery, particularly air and water emissions, and the aim has always been to keep emissions as low as practicable. Extensive water and sludge treatment facilities were built into the expansion project and to help reduce sulphur dioxide air emissions even further the Refinery commissioned the construction of a SCOT unit. This $30 million plant came on line in 1995, significantly reducing the emission of sulphur dioxide.