Leap Year software glitch closes fuel pumps across New Zealand

New Zealand gas stations reported nationwide outages at self-service pumps on Thursday, apparently because their software is unable to deal with the date of 29 February.

Allied Fuel, Gull, Z Energy and BP, all confirmed some self-service fuel pumps they operate around New Zealand were not working due to issues with the payment system used, reports Reuters and Bloomberg.

"We think it's the inability of the payment software to cope with the leap year," said Gull spokesman Julien Leys. "That's our understanding but we're waiting for confirmation from our technology provider."

However, the issue has been fixed and just needed to be rolled out to affected fuel pumps around the country, John Scott, chief executive of Invenco Group, told Reuters.

New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to greet the day and therefore experience Feb. 29, the extra day added every four years to account for the Earth taking slightly longer than 365 days to orbit the sun, according to Bloomberg

"We are aware of an issue with our third-party payment system that is impacting companies across New Zealand today, including Z Energy," Z said in a statement on its website. "We are working closely with our third-party payment provider to resolve this issue as quickly as possible."