A Northland digger driver suspected of damaging the fuel pipeline to Auckland is vehemently denying it was him.

The rupture caused a fuel crisis which disrupted travel last week for thousands of airline passengers.

Robbie Hislop has been driving diggers in Northland for nearly 20 years and he knows the local excavation industry like he knows the controls of his digger.

But digger drivers aren't exactly popular in Northland right now because of the fuel pipeline rupture, and the local rumour mill is pointing the finger at him.

However he told Newshub he "definitely" wasn't driving the digger which hit the pipe.

He's perplexed at how he became the prime suspect. He's been asked by mates and journalists if it was him, and he wants to clear his name.

"Digger drivers have become the scapegoat for the rupture," he said.

Mr Hislop says every single digger driver in the region knows the pipeline is there and not to dig near it.

"It's clearly marked," he said.

White posts show the pipe's track through the farmland and there are warning signs too.

It's buried at a depth of four metres. Mr Hislop says if it was a digger that scraped it, the driver wasn't just playing around.