Future Of Mobil Port Stanvac Refinery

Future of Mobil Port Stanvac Refinery

Adelaide, 25 June 2009: Mobil Refining Australia Pty Ltd (Mobil) today announced that it does not plan to restart the Port Stanvac refinery and will proceed with a proposal to demolish the refinery facilities and remediate the site.

Mobil Refining Director, Glenn Henson, said "Since the refinery ceased operations in mid 2003 we have, on several occasions, reviewed whether it made business sense to restart the refinery ourselves, and we have also received a number of proposals from other parties interested in operating the refinery. Unfortunately, none of these reviews ultimately supported us restarting the refinery, nor were we able to achieve a satisfactory sales agreement.

"As a result, we have advised the South Australian Government that we intend to proceed with plans, including associated government agency approvals, to demolish the refinery and remediate the site," he said.

Mobil proposes to commence demolition at the earliest opportunity, in line with necessary Government planning approvals and other regulatory requirements, as well as our planning processes for such work. Following demolition of the refinery facilities Mobil will finalise a comprehensive remediation plan for the site, in consultation with the Site Environmental Auditor and subject to the approval of the South Australian EPA, and will work to complete remediation of the site as soon as practicable.

"Demolition and subsequent remediation of the site is a complex matter which will require ongoing close coordination between Mobil and the relevant State authorities and we look forward to working cooperatively with the Government on this," said Mr. Henson.

"The environmental work done over recent years in conjunction with CRC CARE researchers, and in association with our recent sale of land at Port Stanvac to SA Water for a desalination plant, will help in developing future remediation plans for the refinery site.

"As with all such work, we look forward to a safe and effective demolition and remediation of the refinery and will take care to minimise any impacts on the surrounding community as this work proceeds," Mr Henson said.


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SOURCE: Mobil Refining Australia Pty Ltd