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| Fig. 1: Chart displaying each country's import energy's proportionate share of total primary energy. [1-4] (Image Source: B. Ma) |
Island nations often face unique challenges in achieving energy self-sufficiency due to their geographical isolation and limited land area and natural resources. Without large domestic reserves of fossil fuel resources, most island nations must rely on imported fuels to meet their energy needs. Transportation, shipping costs, and geopolitical issues further compound these challenges, making imported energy supply chains more expensive and especially vulnerable to global market disruptions.
New Zealand, despite being an advanced industrialized country, still faces challenges in imported energy dependencies as an island nation. The goal of this report is to analyze and quantify New Zealand's dependency on imported energy (in terms of % share of total primary energy) and the implications of such a level of dependency. Then, we will explore potential countermeasures that could reduce New Zealand's vulnerabilities and strengthen energy security.
As a highly advanced and developed country, New Zealand addresses its geographical limitations as an island nation by producing a substantial amount of its own energy through renewable energy sources such as hydro dams and geothermal fields. Despite this, fossil fuels still make up a majority (54.5%) of the country's primary energy consumption, and while there are domestic fossil fuel energy sources in the form of coal mines, a rapid decline in domestic natural gas reserves and onshore crude oil refining capacity have forced New Zealand to pivot towards foreign markets to meet energy demands. [1]
According to New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, energy imports accounted for 359 petajoules (PJ) of the country's 835 PJ of primary energy for the 2024 calendar year. [1] This means that 359 PJ / 835 PJ ≈ 43% of New Zealand's total energy demand is satisfied by imported energy. Much of this is fossil fuel energy in the form of refined products, since the closure of the Marsden Point refinery essentially removed the country's ability to refine crude oil.
It is helpful to view the 43% figure of total energy demand being imported in the context of other developed island nations. New Zealand occupies a middle ground where it is far more secure than many developed island countries, yet still significantly behind the leaders in energy independence.
As we can see in Fig. 1, New Zealand is far ahead of the developed island countries Ireland and Japan, which both import over 80% of theeir primary energy supply. [2,3] However, we also see that there is a significant gap between New Zealand and Iceland, often seen as one of the most energy independent countries. It has only 15% of its primary energy supply coming from imported energy, the rest being derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources. [4]
New Zealand's 43% net energy import share demonstrates both strength and vulnerability. Its extensive renewable resources puts its above many other developed nations and reduces its complete reliance on the global energy supply chain. However, fossil fuels still represent over half of the country's primary energy use, with a large part of the fossil fuels being imported. While this figure is better than many island countries, there is still significant room for improvement when comparing with the global leaders in energy self-sufficiency. As an island nation with geographical challenges, energy independence is crucial, and without it leaves New Zealand vulnerable to supply disruptions, price volatility, and potential geopolitical tensions in the future. Reducing this dependence on energy imports will require a combination of diversified import partners and aggressive renewable energy expansion. These steps would enhance energy security, help insulate the domestic economy from global price shocks, and position New Zealand to achieve both energy stability and sustainability in the future.
© Brian Ma. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] ""Energy in New Zealand 25," New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, August 2025.
[2] ""Energy in Ireland 2023," Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, December 2023.
[3] B. Cahill, J. Nakano, and K. Irié, "How Japan Thinks About Energy Security," Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 2024.
[4] B. Daviðsdóttir, "Towards an Icelandic Sustainable Energy System: Relying on Domestic Renewable Energy," in Successful Public Policy in the Nordic Countries, ed. by C. de la Porte et al. (Oxford University Press, 2022).