Caltex resumes diesel production at its Lytton refinery after an incident last year forced the company to shut it down
By Brad Gardner
Caltex has resumed full diesel production at its Lytton refinery after an incident in December last year forced the company to shut it down.
A spokesperson for Caltex says there are no limits on diesel availability, while unleaded fuel has also returned to full production.
The spokesperson says work at the refinery has been progressing well since it was restarted following the damage to the refinery on December 12.
A loss of steam to the refinery led to fuel shortages to Caltex and other service stations throughout Queensland.
The incident, which left plumes of black smoke in the air visible suburbs away, impacted heavily on diesel supplies already at 50 percent due to problems with the refinery’s hydrotreating unit.
Caltex was forced to import unleaded fuel and diesel from other states.
But despite the progress at the refinery, Caltex is yet to resume full production of premium fuel.
It has been restricted to 60 percent of normal levels due to maintenance, and will not resume full production until later this week.
“Maintenance has been carried out on a unit relating to the production of premium fuel,” the spokesperson says.
“The work is complete and the unit is now being started up with feed-in planned for Wednesday night.”
To offset any problems with supplies, Caltex will import premium unleaded fuel this week, with some being transported from the company’s NSW terminal in Banksmeadow to south-east Queensland.