Oil refinery fire to have minimal impact on Australian fuel supply: PM Albanese

Melbourne, April 17 (IANS) Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday that a major fire that broke out at one of Australia's two oil refineries will have a minimal impact on fuel production.

Albanese on Friday returned early from an official trip to Brunei and Malaysia to inspect the damage at Viva Energy's refinery southwest of Melbourne after equipment failure caused a major fire on Wednesday night. The fire was extinguished around midday on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the refinery, Albanese said that the timing of the fire was "regrettable" amid the oil supply crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East, but that it would have a minimal impact on production.

"The advice that we've received today is that 80 per cent of diesel production is continuing, 80 per cent of aviation fuel is continuing," said Albanese, who was in Brunei and Malaysia for talks on fuel security.

Petrol production at the facility, which provides 10 per cent of Australia's national fuel supply, was at 60 per cent of capacity on Friday and there are hopes that it can "ramp up" in the coming days, Albanese said.

He said that the government would provide its regular weekly update on fuel stockpile levels on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Authorities said on Thursday that equipment failure caused a major fire at an Australian oil refinery that is expected to affect the national fuel supply.

The fire broke out at Viva Energy's refinery in the city of Geelong, 65 km southwest of Melbourne, around 11 p.m. local time on Wednesday and was continuing to burn on Thursday morning.

The facility is one of only two operational refineries in Australia and produces about 10 per cent of the national fuel supply.

Michelle Cowling, deputy commissioner of the fire and rescue service in the state of Victoria, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio that equipment failure in the refinery caused the fire.