The Government of Tonga is considering possible ways to enable the supply of petroleum by medium-range (MR) tankers. The primary objective of using MR tankers is to bring down the price of petroleum products in Tonga by reducing shipping and freight costs. The Government of Tonga has engaged Chapman Tripp (together with Castalia, Hale & Twomey, and Anthony Harper) to independently assess the possible models for MR supply and recommend a way forward to Cabinet.

This report evaluates four options for MR supply. Under the first two options, the new infrastructure required for MR supply (moorings, pipelines, and storage capacity) would be privately financed1. One of these options has been proposed by an existing fuel supplier (Pacific Energy). Under the other two options the Government would finance and own the new MR infrastructure. While a number of variants on these models are possible, we consider that the options assessed in this report cover the range of approaches that the Government could use to move the MR supply project forward.