A significant fire at one of Australia\u2019s last two oil refineries took over 12 hours to bring under control, resulting in extensive damage at the Geelong site operated by Viva Energy, which was described as resembling a “war zone.” <\/p>\n
The blaze erupted shortly after 11 PM on Wednesday, with approximately 50 employees on site at the time. Fortunately, all personnel managed to escape without injuries. However, local residents were advised to stay indoors while firefighters worked to contain the flames.<\/p>\n
Located about 500 meters from the nearest homes, the fire was finally extinguished at 12:04 PM on Thursday. Residents several kilometers away, many of whom were under a “Watch and Act” alert, reported hearing loud explosions emanating from the facility.<\/p>\n
Vince Modica, a resident living five kilometers from the refinery, remarked that the scene resembled the fires seen in Middle Eastern refineries.<\/p>\n
Both the Viva refinery in Geelong and the Ampol-owned Lytton refinery in Brisbane each produce around 10 percent of Australia’s fuel needs, with the rest being sourced internationally.<\/p>\n
According to Viva Energy, the Geelong facility has the capacity to process up to 120,000 barrels of oil daily, producing a variety of products including petrol, diesel, LPG, and jet fuel.<\/p>\n
Professor Yuan Chen from the University of Sydney’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering highlighted the inherent risks associated with oil refining, describing it as a “high-temperature, high-risk” operation. He explained that the process involves heating crude oil to temperatures of about 350-400 degrees Celsius to transform it into vapor, which is then condensed into different chemical fractions.<\/p>\n
These operational conditions, coupled with the refinery’s age\u2014having been established in the 1950s\u2014can heighten the risk of accidents, according to Professor Chen.<\/p>\n
Viva has attributed the cause of the fire to equipment failure, which is currently under investigation. The company suspects that a malfunctioning mechanical component in the mogas alkylation plant led to a gas leak, which subsequently ignited.<\/p>\n
Michael McGuinness, Assistant Chief Fire Officer at FRV, noted that the fire was concentrated in a space measuring approximately 30 by 30 meters, with several minor explosions accompanying the blaze. He described the fire’s progression from a small flame to an intense and large fire following multiple explosions.<\/p>\n
Bill Patterson, the refinery manager, assured the media that Viva Energy was still able to produce petrol, diesel, and jet fuel at reasonable rates, indicating that the affected equipment was specifically related to LPG production and low aromatic gasoline. He stated, “It hasn’t been a large impact at this stage.”<\/p>\n
Images were captured by Danielle Bonica, with additional research conducted by Tim Leslie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A significant fire at one of Australia\u2019s last two oil refineries took over 12 hours to bring under control, resulting in extensive damage at the Geelong site operated by Viva Energy, which was described as resembling a “war zone.” The blaze erupted shortly after 11 PM on Wednesday, with approximately 50 employees on site at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,376,1893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-au-fires","category-au-industrial-fires"],"yoast_head":"\n