Power Failure Shuts Down Parts of Altona Refinery

17 May 2010

Melbourne, Australia – Shortly before 9 PM on Sunday evening, 16 May, a power outage in the North Altona area, west of Melbourne, interrupted supply to the Mobil Altona Refinery.  Although the refinery has dual sources of power from the grid the sudden dip in power supply caused by this failure resulted in the shutdown of parts of the refinery and a significant increase in flaring of excess petroleum gas.

Electricity provider, Powercor, took several hours to restore power in the area before the refinery could commence restarting affected equipment and reduce the amount of flaring.  By 6 AM on Monday morning key units of the refinery were back on line and the flare had been substantially reduced.

Mobil regrets any concerns this incident, which was beyond our control, may have caused for nearby residents.  We would like to reassure our neighbours that the refinery's emergency shutdown systems and processes worked just as they should in safely managing the impacts of this external power failure.  There was no injury to people at the site, no fire or damage to refinery equipment and no risk to the surrounding community.  EPA, WorkSafe, local Council and Government representatives have been briefed about this incident.

Mobil does not expect this short term shutdown of parts of the refinery to have any significant impact on fuel supplies. 

We will work with Powercor to understand why this failure of their equipment and systems occurred and what can be done to prevent a recurrence.

Media enquiries:   Alan Bailey    (03) 9270 3126 or 0417 549 175