A failure of equipment has been blamed for causing a major fire at the Viva Energy oil refinery in Geelong, which will impact an already shaky national fuel supply situation.
Fire Rescue Victoria deputy commissioner Michelle Cowling told the ABC “an equipment failure in the refinery” triggered the overnight blaze.
“Viva is looking into that,” she said.
Aerial footage of the firefighters battling for control of a fire at the Geelong oil refinery. (Nine)
“So there’ll be a thorough investigation into the failure of how this fire started.”
Cowling said it will still take four or five hours to bring the fire under control, but the in some “good news”, the blaze was contained to a part of the refinery known as the transfer.
“It’s not impacting diesel or gasoline and petroleum production. So that won’t add to the already stressed fuel issues that we’re having,” she said.
The Geelong plant is one of only two operating oil refineries in Australia.
Output reduced to ‘minimum’
Production at the fire-stricken will continue but be “very low relative to what we were doing before,” Viva Energy says.
Chief executive Scott Wyatt told Sky News he was unable to say by how much production would be cut, but described output following the blaze would likely be at “minimum rates.”
“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.”
Equipment failure has been blamed for the Geelong refinery fire. (Nine)
‘Explosions’ before fire took hold
Authorities expect it will take hours before a major fire at one of Australia’s two operating oil refineries is brought under control.
Fifty firefighters have been battling the blaze at the Viva oil refinery in Geelong which was reported at 11.05pm yesterday following reports of explosions and flames.
The incident happened as the nation faces a fuel crisis, and the federal government is warning the fire will have an impact on national supplies.
Fire Rescue Victoria Assistant Chief Fire Officer Michael McGuinness said the fire began in the MOGAS section of the complex, where motor gasoline was produced.
“There’s been some sort of leak, there’s hydrocarbons, flammable liquids which very readily caught fire,” he said.
“It was burning in an area of approximately 30 metres by 30 metres. There have been several small explosions.”
He said firefighters will continue their operations for “at least another four to five hours”, but they were seeing a reduction in the intensity of the blaze.
Firefighters faced a wall of flames when they tackled the blaze. (Nine)
FRV believe the fire was unintentionally lit, and started from a gas leak that triggered smaller fires and several explosions.
“We just have not been able to conduct any investigations at this stage … The workers indicated that a leak was detected, then very quickly that increased in size, and an explosion occurred, and a rapid fire occurred,” McGuinness said.
FRV specialist hazardous materials teams have been conducting atmospheric testing, but have not identified any contaminants in the atmosphere or water run-off from firefighting operations.
The refinery in the industrial suburb of Corio produces 120,000 barrels every day, and supplies about 50 per cent of Victoria’s oil and 10 per cent of Australia’s supplies.
An earlier watch and act message for areas south of the Corio Refinery has been lifted.
Six domestic oil refineries have closed in the last 20 years, leaving only the Ampol Lytton refinery in Brisbane and Viva Energy’s Geelong facility operational and meaning Australia imports 90 per cent of its liquid fuel needs.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the fire will cause disruption in jet fuel supplies, but the main concern was about petrol production.
The Geelong refinery is one of only two operating in Australia. FILE (Eddie Jim)
“There will be an impact on production. At this point, production of jet fuel and diesel is continuing at the refinery at reduced levels for safety reasons as a precaution,” he told Today this morning.
“At this point, the impact is mainly on petrol production, but obviously, this is very early days.”
The Geelong facility is the country’s sole producer of aviation fuel.
Australian Workers Union official Ross Kenna told 9News there was likely to be “diminished” output at the refinery due to the fire.
He says the blaze started at the MOGAS unit overnight, a critical part of the plant where motor fuel is refined.
“I imagine there will be a capacity loss.”
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