Australia loses another oil refinery, leaving our fuel supply vulnerable to regional crises

Australia loses another oil refinery in Victoria.

Typical - Daniel Andrews and ScoMo asleep at the wheel.

Yes and its a bloody disgrace!

We are lucky to have 60 days worth on our soil at any given time.

Any slight world military disruption and we are stuffed!

Australia loses another oil refinery, leaving our fuel supply vulnerable to regional crises

In the space of four months, Australia has lost half of its remaining oil refineries.
In October, BP announced it was closing its Kwinana oil refinery in Perth and converting it into a fuel import terminal.
The oil major said the refinery — Australia's largest — was no longer economically viable.
It blamed the regional over-supply of fuel and the growth of mega-refineries in Asia and the Middle East that had structurally changed the regional fuel market, saying Kwinana couldn't compete with those overseas refineries anymore.
Its decision meant the number of oil refineries in Australia would decline from four to three.
Now, a few months later, ExxonMobil has announced the closure of its Altona oil refinery in Melbourne, saying it was no longer economically viable.
It, too, will be turned into a fuel-import terminal.
ExxonMobil's decision will leave Australia with just two oil refineries.
Meanwhile, Australian fuel giant Ampol, which owns an oil refinery in Brisbane — one of the last two remaining in Australia (with the other being Viva Energy's oil refinery in Geelong, Victoria) — is reviewing whether to keep its refinery open or convert it into a fuel import terminal, too.
It's an inexorable decline for the industry.
Roughly 20 years ago, Australia had eight refineries that met virtually all of our domestic demand for refined fuel.

What does it mean for Australia's fuel security?

According to Dr Hunter Laidlaw from the Parliamentary Library, as Australia's refineries have closed our refining capacity and capability has diminished and we've become more dependent on imports of already-refined fuel.
This could have consequences if global supply chains are severely disrupted.
"Australia's fuel supply therefore becomes more reliant on industry's ability to source and ship the necessary fuels when required," he wrote on the Parliamentary Library's blog, FlagPost, in December.
"Once closed, refinery sites are often converted into fuel import and storage terminals (as announced for Kwinana), so remain important facilities in the fuel supply chain.
"However, having fewer refineries reduces Australia's ability to refine fuels if shipping and supply chains are ever severely disrupted for any reason in the future."
These concerns were reiterated loudly on Wednesday following ExxonMobil's announcement about its Altona refinery.

Unions, employer groups, and opposition

Anthony Albanese, the Leader of the Federal Opposition, said Labor had been warning that the Federal Government's "fuel security" policy was inadequate and "failed to address Australia's fuel security needs".
"Scott Morrison's policy vacuum has left hundreds of workers without jobs and the nation without a sovereign supply of domestic fuel," he said on Wednesday.
Innes Willox, the chief executive of AI Group, a national employer association, said Australia must confront "our severe fuel insecurity".
"Not only is Australian refinery capacity plunging, but most of the oil comes from overseas," Mr Willox said.
"A more aggressive push into electrification, hydrogen, and bioenergy can provide more sustainable security over time, but viable long-term solutions need to tie together climate, energy, industry and transport strategies.
"The closure [of Altona] adds to the pressure on governments to make far-sighted and clearheaded decisions to rebuild Australia's industrial and economic recovery.
The Maritime Union of Australia warned that the nation's growing reliance on fuel refined overseas and transported here, on foreign-owned and operated tankers, was making the country "increasingly vulnerable" to any international crisis.
"Even before these refineries close, more than 90 per cent of Australia's refined fuels are coming from overseas, leaving the nation seriously exposed to any crisis that impacts on maritime supply chains," MUA assistant national secretary Jamie Newlyn said.
"The COVID crisis exposed the vulnerability of Australia's supply chains.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-11/australia-loses-another-oil-refinery-risking-fuel-supply/13139648