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No refueling possible at the moment: This was the message awaiting drivers in Wellington
Photo: Ryland;
James/AFP
As a result of a software problem in connection with leap day February 29th, numerous self-service petrol pumps in New Zealand could no longer be used on Thursday.
Because card payments were no longer possible, some gas stations in the capital Wellington remained completely closed for hours.
Display boards alerted motorists willing to refuel to nationwide payment problems.
A spokesman for the gas station operator Gull explained that it was a software problem with a payment service provider that was related to leap day.
In addition to Gull, according to the Reuters news agency, Allied Petroleum, Z Energy and BP were also affected by the problem, at least at their self-service stations.
The cause is not yet fully understood
John Scott, managing director of Invenco Group, which offers the payment software solution, said it was a "leap year glitch" that could be fixed with a software update.
His company does not know exactly how the breakdown occurred.
However, the problem will be investigated in the next few days.
According to a report in The New Zealand Herald newspaper, the petrol pumps are now back in operation.
However, according to their report, the outage lasted more than ten hours.
Filling stations where payments were possible via app or at the counter apparently did not have to stop operating.
mbo/Reuters/AFP