Fed; Diesel short after chain of refinery mishaps

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2001
Fed; Diesel short after chain of refinery mishaps

By Royal Abbott

MELBOURNE, Dec 5 AAP - Supplies of diesel and unleaded petrol were running short because
of a chain of refinery problems, oil companies said today.

Diesel is short in all the eastern states and unleaded petrol supplies are particularly
tight in Victoria.

Refineries from Brisbane to Adelaide have cut production in recent months because of
maintenance shutdowns, industrial issues, storm damage and other unforseen circumstances,
oil company spokespeople said.

In a statement today, Mobil said a routine maintenance shutdown at its Altona refinery
in Melbourne slowed production to 40 per cent of normal output and diesel would be short
for another fortnight.

Petrol supplies also had been tight, but the situation was improving, the company said,

A Mobil spokeswoman said normally-reliable fuel distribution patterns for Australia's
eastern states were thrown off balance when maintenance at Mobil's Kurnell refinery in
Adelaide in October was prolonged by industrial issues.

This had since been compounded by mostly short-term problems at other refineries.

The Caltex refinery in Brisbane was also shut down for maintenance about two months
ago and was slow restarting.

Production at Shell's Clyde refinery in Sydney was set back when it sustained storm
damage on Monday.

It is understood the facility was hit by lightning.

Shell spokesman Vincent Cosgrove said the Sydney refinery received some storm damage
and its Geelong refinery, near Melbourne, was briefly forced to wind back output after
a kerosene spill, also on Monday.

"These are unfortunate hiccups, but both refineries are back on line and we are meeting
our contractual supply commitments," Mr Cosgrove said.

"There is some tightness around the market, but Shell will be doing all it can to assist
as far as Mobil is concerned."

He said the problems on Monday affected supplies for just one day because Shell had
its storage as back-up.

Independent service station operators said the supply problems were expected to continue
until at least the weekend.

Jim Lamb, from the Independent Marketers Association, said diesel was chronically short,
but supplies of unleaded petrol were also somewhat precarious because it was the biggest
seller.

Mobil apologised to customers for any inconvenience.

AAP ra/gfr/las/bwl

KEYWORD: REFINERIES

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