Viva to turn Geelong oil refinery into energy hub

Viva Energy, owner of the Geelong oil refinery 50 km west of Melbourne, plans to turn the facility into a 235-hectare energy hub that includes an LNG reception terminal and solar farm. It will retain the existing refining operations.

The LNG terminal would bring in natural gas from other parts of Australia and overseas. It is the second such project earmarked for Victoria with AGL, Sydney, looking to establish a floating LNG import terminal in Western Port Bay south of Melbourne.

The LNG import project is at pre-front-end engineering and design stage. Viva plans to begin assessing interest from potential partners for gas supplies, gas demand, power generation,  and LNG floating storage management.

Viva also will consider associated projects like gas-to-power, LNG for transport, and gas-to-hydrogen.

There have been no indications of the possible size or cost of a Geelong LNG import terminal.

Viva said there was also potential to develop a 27 MW solar photovoltaic and battery storage plant on the site.

The 128,000 b/d refinery, originally built by Royal Dutch Shell in 1954, supplies about 10% of Australia’s liquid fuel demand, but has struggled with falling demand caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns and is likely to post a loss of more than $40 million (Aus.) for the first half of the year.

Major maintenance works at the refinery between July and November will proceed, but some works will be delayed until 2021.