---

Mobil Oil New Zealand Ltd. has been fined $288,000 for an oil spill in Tauranga Harbour, which was discovered in April last year.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council prosecuted Mobil under the Resource Management Act. The oil major was sentenced in Tauranga District Court on May 16 after pleading guilty to a charge of discharging a contaminant into water.

According to court documents, heavy fuel oil leaked into Tauranga Harbour as a result of two holes in a corroded, Mobil-owned, 30-year-old pipe during a fuel transfer operation on Monday April 27, 2015.

During the trial, the court heard that Mobil failed to make key repairs to the pipe after it was twice flagged as needing immediate attention several years earlier.

The council's prosecutor, Adam Hopkinson, described the bunker spill as "an accident waiting to happen", whilst Judge Jeff Smith said the spill was the consequence of a "systemic failure".

"Of its type, this incident may not be on the same scale as Rena but nevertheless the effects were similar and also showed a high level of recklessness bordering on deliberateness... significantly higher than that of Rena," commented the judge.

Between 3,000 and 6,000 litres of heavy fuel oil is estimated to have spilled into the harbour during the incident.

In total, Mobil has paid $1.8 million in reimbursements and other costs, including reimbursing the regional council $1.187 million for costs incurred in the cleanup operation.

The bunker supplier was told to pay 90 percent of the $288,000 fine to the regional council, and also ordered to pay $113 solicitors' fees.

Outside the courthouse, Andrew McNaught, Mobil's country manager, remarked: "Mobil apologises for the incident and for the impact it had on the community and the local environment.

"Our priority has always been to minimise the impacts to the local environment and to ensure a thorough clean up and restoration of affected areas in Tauranga Harbour.

"Mobil learns from all incidents and uses this information to reinforce our commitment to continued improvement. We have already made changes to further improve our operations at Mount Maunganui."

Nick Zaman, Pollution Prevention Manager at Bay of Plenty Regional Council, was quoted as saying: "This sends a very clear message to all these people operating in a high-risk environment that they need to keep on top of their game.

"If you don't keep on top of maintenance, it's a disaster waiting to happen. Companies should really take note that they need to keep on top of this - it's just not good enough to do things as an after-thought."