June 25, 2018 [Oil & Gas Journal] - ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary Mobil Refining Australia Pty. Ltd. plans to expand crude storage capacity at its 80,000-b/d Altona refinery in Victoria, 13 km west of Melbourne, as part of its strategy to improve efficiency of its local refining and supply operations to help meet Australia’s growing demand for transportation fuels.
Beginning this month, Mobil will build the tank in an existing crude oil storage area at the refinery site, the operator said. Construction on the project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
The company did not disclose a capacity for the proposed tank.
The crude tank comes as another major investment in the Altona Refinery to complement other recent investments designed to improve ExxonMobil’s competitive position in Australia, according to Riccardo Cavallo, Mobil’s manager of refining for Australia and New Zealand.
“During the past 5 years, ExxonMobil has invested more than $400 million (Aus.) at the Altona Refinery and Yarraville terminal. Recent investments include construction of a 3-km pipeline connecting Yarraville terminal to the Somerton jet-fuel pipeline, construction of two new fuel storage tanks at Yarraville terminal, and work to increase Altona Refinery’s production,” said Cavallo.
“The additional crude oil storage will help optimize ExxonMobil Australia’s integrated oil and gas business to support continued supply of high-quality, locally produced fuel products to Victorian businesses and households,” Cavallo added.
The operator previously announced plans for a multimillion-dollar (Aus.) investment to execute projects to expand capacity and improve efficiency at the Altona refinery, including work on the refinery’s crude unit to increase its processing capacity by 10,000 b/d to 90,000 b/d, technical projects designed to boost the refinery’s production of diesel and jet fuel, and a project to enable recovery of an additional 3 Mw of waste heat (OGJ Online, May 12, 2016).
The Altona refinery produces as much as 13 million l./day of refined products (60% gasoline, 30% diesel, 10% jet fuel) and supplies LPG feedstock to Qenos Pty. Ltd.’s petrochemical plants at the Altona Chemical Complex (ACC), which in turn supply feedstock to ACC manufacturing plants operated by BASF SE and Dow Chemical Co.
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