Shell Conducting Repairs at Australia Refinery; Unit Still off After Fire

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, says it’s carrying out maintenance at its Geelong refinery in Australia, declining to provide details of what units are being serviced.

“The facility is still functioning,” Paul Zennaro, Melbourne-based spokesman for Shell, said by telephone today. The bitumen unit, damaged in a May fire, remains offline and it isn’t known when it will return to service, he said.

Geelong, one of two refineries operated by Shell in Australia, has the capacity to process as many as 120,000 barrels of oil a day and supplies about 50 percent of Victoria state’s fuel needs, according its website. Bitumen is being sourced for customers from the company’s Clyde plant in New South Wales and “other sources,” Zennaro said.

The Geelong plant is one of seven refineries in Australia, with others operated by BP Plc, Caltex Australia Ltd. and Exxon Mobil Corp.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

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