'Suspicious' fuel takes on farms continue

Farmers are watching the price of fuel after Monday's announcement of an Iran and US peace deal, even as a fuel monitoring app shows elevated levels of fuel being taken at night.

Shares have surged in Asian markets, and oil prices have fallen, following the announcement of a deal between the US and Iran.

The drop reflects traders' belief that global supplies will increase once the Strait of Hormuz re-opens.

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said the deal was good news for New Zealand as it would lead to lower prices at the pump and could boost consumer and business confidence.

At the same time, however, a farming app has been monitoring suspicious overnight fuel takes while the price of petrol was elevated during the closure of the Strait.

As fuel costs continue to bite, there have been more "suspicious" fuel takes detected.

In April, a farming app was picking up a small 13.7 percent rise in fuel being taken from monitored tanks during the night.

Palmerston North-based company Levno said that trend has continued - with a 20 percent rise in suspicious takes in April and May compared to the same time last year.

However, there are some indications it may be petering off a little in June - and could continue if fuel prices fall.

These suspicious fuel takes may not have all necessarily been thefts - there may have been legitimate explanations for withdrawals, like contractors needing fuel for urgent farm work.

Levno chief executive Oscar Ellison said most of the suspicious fuel takes are sub 20 litres.

"It might be someone the farmer knows, or someone has snuck on and is just topping up their tank on their personal vehicle or something like that, that's the most likely culprit.

"We have seen a couple of events where 500 litres has gone out and we've alerted the customer to those ones, but we are seeing lots of little withdrawals as well, often in the middle of the night," he said.

Levno monitors thousands of tanks across the country and Ellison said the amount of fuel farmers are holding in storage is also higher than usual.

"Normally they [tanks] sit around 50 percent and it's up at 62 [percent] so it's up about 12 percent on where it was a year ago in terms of the average fuel level of the tank," he said.

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