In brief
- The fire broke out at the Viva Energy refinery in Corio, Geelong, on Wednesday night.
- Firefighters remain on scene and an investigation is being conducted to determine the cause.
A major blaze at one of two of Australia's operational oil refineries could further disrupt the country's fuel supply during a global energy crisis.
Authorities said the fire broke out at Viva Energy's refinery in Corio, Geelong, about 11pm on Wednesday.
Here's what we know so far:
What happened?
Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) said it was called to the refinery at 11.05pm on Wednesday following multiple reports of "explosions and flames".
On Thursday, FRV assistant chief fire officer Michael McGuinness said the fire started in the "mogas" section of the plant where motor gasoline was produced.
"There's been some sort of leak, there's hydrocarbons, flammable liquids which very readily caught fire," he said.
FRV deputy commissioner Michelle Cowling told ABC News the fire was "well under control" and had been contained to a small area of the refinery.
She said there was a small leak after valve failures in mechanical equipment which likely led to the fire. A plume of LNG then ignited due to "several ignition sources" in the refinery.
"It looks like a valve has given way, which started a small leak," she said.
There was no threat to the public and no reports of injuries.
About 50 firefighters, 10 fire trucks and a boat attended the scene.
"[It was] quite ferocious. The fire went from a small fire through several explosions to be quite a large, intense fire," McGuinness said earlier, adding the fire did not appear to be suspicious.
A community advice message was issued for areas south of the refinery due to smoke. Residents were advised to close exterior doors and windows and turn off heating and cooling systems.
Will this affect Australia's fuel production?
According to the company's website, the refinery processes up to 120,000 barrels of oil a day and supplies 10 per cent of Australia's fuel.
The extent of the damage to the refinery remains unclear, but two units in the petrol complex have been affected.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the fire was "not great timing" and he expected there would be impacts to Australia's fuel production.
"This is not a positive development in Geelong," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"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."
Viva Energy CEO Scott Wyatt said petrol "will potentially be impacted, depending on how we operate the units after".
Bill Patterson, refinery manager at Corio, said the fire broke out in the 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.
Patterson said 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.
Is the refinery operating?
Wyatt told Sky News 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."
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