in brief
- A major fire broke out at an oil refinery in Geelong, Victoria, on Wednesday night.
- Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Australia’s fuel supply could be disrupted by the blaze.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has cautioned that the nation’s fuel supply could face prolonged disruptions following a significant fire at one of Australia’s two active fuel refineries. The incident unfolded at Viva Energy’s refinery in Corio, Geelong, late Wednesday night, around 11 p.m., and has since engaged Victorian firefighters in an intense battle to contain the flames.
On Thursday morning, Fire Rescue Victoria’s assistant chief fire officer, Michael McGuinness, provided an update, explaining that while the fire had yet to be brought under control, it posed no immediate threat to the public. “This is quite a dangerous fire,” McGuinness stated, highlighting the presence of highly flammable materials that have complicated firefighting efforts.
Throughout the night, Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) responded to numerous calls reporting explosions at the site. The firefighting teams anticipate that their efforts to quell the blaze will extend until at least this afternoon. The situation remains dynamic and poses a challenge to both the emergency services and the fuel supply chain.
“This is quite a dangerous fire,” McGuinness said.
“We are dealing with highly flammable materials.”
FRV said that it had responded to multiple calls reporting explosions overnight and that they expected to continue to battle the blaze until at least this afternoon.
The refinery is still producing diesel and jet fuel at a reduced rate, while the impact on petrol production remains in question.
“Not great timing,” Bowen told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday morning.
“This is not a positive development in Geelong.
“Let’s not pretend somehow that this won’t have some sort of impact, but as I said, we will carefully, methodically manage it with the refinery.”
Bowen added that there will be an investigation into the outbreak of the fire, but said that at this point in time it is not being treated suspiciously and appears to have been started by accident.
‘Disappointing on so many levels’
Viva Energy CEO Scott Wyatt told reporters on Thursday morning that the outbreak of the fire was “disappointing on so many levels”.
“Naturally, petrol will be one of the products that will potentially be impacted, depending on how we operate the units after,” Wyatt said.
He added that he was confident that the overseas supply of refined fuels would be able to fill the potential shortfall in petrol.
The extent of the damage to the refinery remains unclear, but two units in the petrol complex have been affected.
In separate remarks on Sky News, Wyatt said production would continue at a “very low” level without specifying the output level.
“In the days ahead, we will look at how we can continue to operate the refinery without the need to use these two units that have been affected,” he said.
“We have operated in this way before, so we have a high degree of confidence that we can do that.
Bill Patterson, refinery manager at Corio, said that the fire started in the “mogas” aviation sector of the refinery, a section that assists with the production of high-octane fuels, including petrol.
“The unit that’s been impacted is a unit that turns LPG gases into a gasoline component, that gasoline component is used for a number of purposes, including in the blending of normal regular gasoline that you buy from your service stations,” he said.
According to the company’s website, the refinery can process up to 120,000 barrels of oil a day and supplies 10 per cent of Australia’s fuel.
Wyatt and Patterson denied any suggestion that the plant had caught fire due to overlooked safety issues or as a consequence of its age.
McGuinness added that precautions had been taken to ensure that no contaminants had entered the waterways, the bay next to the plant, or the smoke rising from the fire.
Australia imports some 80 per cent of its refined fuel, with the rest processed from domestic supplies at Corio in Victoria and in Lytton, Queensland.
The country has faced fuel security concerns since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz at the end of February after it was struck by the United States and Israel.
Patterson added that production had been ramped up in response to the events in the Middle East and that maintenance had been “pushed back” in a separate, diesel-producing section of the plant, but that this had not been a contributory factor to the fire.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last month announced the excise on fuel and diesel would be halved in response to surging prices.
Albanese has visited several south-east Asian countries in recent days, meeting regional leaders to shore up domestic fuel supplies. He is currently in Malaysia for the final leg of his trip.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong pledged not to restrict fuel exports to Australia following a meeting with Albanese last week.
Bowen urged Australians not to purchase more fuel than they needed in response to the news.
SBS has contacted Bowen, FRV, and Viva Energy for comment.
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