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An explosive fire at a Geelong oil refinery – which supplies half of Victoria’s fuel and 10% of the nation’s – has broken out, with petrol production to be affected for some time and authorities warning the full extent of the damage is still unknown.
The blaze at the Viva Energy facility in Corio – one of two refineries left in Australia – broke out just after 11pm Wednesday, with Fire Rescue Victoria alerted to the incident by multiple calls to triple zero “reporting explosions and flames”.
“The fire is not yet under control although is currently contained to the plant/area of origin and involves liquid fuels and gases,” FRV said in a statement at 5am on Thursday.
“All emergency response personnel and Viva employees have been accounted for and there have been no reported injuries.”
Geelong’s mayor, Stretch Kontelj, said the fire was “unprecedented” in scale.
A watch and act alert urging local residents to shelter indoors was issued at 1am, but was later downgraded to an advice message on the VicEmergency website about 5.30am. It has subsequently said there was no longer a threat to the publicand residents were “able to resume normal activities”.
Authorities have also stressed hazardous materials teams have not detected any contaminants in air or water tests, and an Environment Protection Authority pollution response unit could be seen arriving at the refinery shortly before 10.30am. There was relatively little smoke seen from the gates of the facility that time, although roads around the site remained closed.
FRV’s chief fire officer, Michael McGuinness, told ABC Radio Melbourne shortly before 7am that the fire was contained to an area within the Mogas (motorgas) section of the refinery, which is about 30m by 30m in size. He warned it could burn for another three or four hours.
FRV deputy commissioner, Michelle Cowling, later confirmed the cause of the blaze appeared to be equipment failure – likely a leak or a valve malfunction.
“It was an equipment failure in the refinery, Viva is looking into that,” Cowling said. “There’ll be a thorough investigation into the failure [and] how this fire started.”
She said there was “no psychical way” for crews to access the valve and shut it off manually, with “no human involvement in the extinguishment at the moment”.
“As you can imagine, it’s quite hot. A significant fire has been burning since about 11pm last night. So until we can really cool that area down, that open valve where that leak has been is still just draining that tank,” Cowling said.
According to the Viva Energy website, the refinery can process about 120,000 barrels of oil each day. Last month, the company said it was able to maintain supplies despite the war in Iran as it was not reliant on fuel from the Middle East.
Viva Energy’s chief executive, Scott Wyatt, said getting the site into safe condition was the immediate priority, rather than any production factors.
“We’ll only start increasing production again once we’re confident we can do that safely,” he said.
Wyatt said the fire was in the petrol area of the plant, which means “naturally” petrol products would be affected.
The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, said petrol, diesel and jet fuel continued to be produced at the refinery at reduced levels as a safety precaution. But he said there would be an impact on production of petrol.
“I’m sure that petrol production will continue but it may be impacted for some time,” Bowen told ABC News Breakfast.
He said there would be an investigation into the cause of the fire but at this stage it “appears to an accident at this point”.
Bowen said it was “not great timing” given concerns around fuel security, but added that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was making “very good progress” on sourcing extra supplies from overseas in a “febrile international environment”.
Gero Farruggio, an analyst at Rystad Energy, said the government should move to stage-three fuel restrictions as a result of the Corio refinery blaze.
“Stage three should come in sooner rather than later, just to secure our supplies and manage demand and ensure we have enough reserves to get through this period,” Farruggio told ABC Radio Melbourne.
But the state’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said there would be “no immediate impact on fuel supply”.
“[Viva] also have said that petrol or gasoline, of all of the fuel types that are under global pressure right now, is the most easiest fuel to be able to source either globally or indeed from within Australia,” D’Ambrosio said.
Ronnie Hayden, state secretary of the Victorian branch of the Australian Workers’ Union, told ABC Radio Melbourne between 50 and 100 workers were on site when the fire broke out and that the evacuation “went to plan”.
“These guys have been highly trained in emergency response and emergency evacuation, and I think that’s the main reason why there were no fatalities.”
Hayden said on Thursday morning the fire “should be out within the next couple of hours”, and workers and authorities would then be able to better understand the impact.
“We don’t know until we actually get in. We’re just speculating. I’d be surprised if we weren’t shut down for a few days, but it could be a lot longer. It could get it done quicker. We just need to get in and have a look.”
The Viva refinery is a “70-year-old facility” that has always required regular maintenance, he added. “Our health and safety rep members are out there, and they identify the issues, and most of them get fixed up pretty quickly.”
