Major Aussie Refinery Closing, Due to Hostile Government Policy

Close all and try to survive, you’ll see how far you come.

Will there be enough “coding” jobs for everyone?

What a story. Shocking to see the globalist elites flying around in their private jets when the creeping damage to both jobs and the production capacity is being fed into the CAGW scam. I wonder how bad it has to get before the idiots voting/tolerating this culture destruction realize they have been had? Especially when the promised green jobs don’t show up!

The domino effect is starting in Australia. It will certainly move to the US, as industries of many stripes, leave. I would like to think that we in Canada might benefit, but one only has to read Rex Murphy’s commentary in the National Post, about our ‘Worst in History’ PM, and I realize that I should not hold my breath, waiting. Good luck, World. There are tough times ahead.

The easiest way for companies to protect their oil refineries from the promised wave of punitive environmental regulations and carbon levies is to move the refining operations and if necessary company headquarters overseas

Followed shortly by the usual suspects whining about evil capitalists shipping OUR jobs overseas.

Once again Down Under becomes the crash test dummy for environmentalist and AGW diktats. So where will the Marxists turn to for providing the money to fuel their ideology after they’ve successfully destroyed Capitalism? The Iron Lady was right …. “until you run out of other people’s money”.

Don’t worry about all those jobs, they’ll be replaced with many more high paying green jobs. Stop whining, they’re working on it as hard as they can.

And the plastic industries will be converted in paper or wood makers?

Step 1. Destroy or cripple the industry with government diktats and propaganda causing damage to peoples lives and livelihoods and danger to national security.
Step 2. In the better case, transform the industry to a government-run cesspool and lie about what happened, assuming the social order survives the national security challenge.

Viva Venezuela.

I did a bit of quick research, and disagree that this closure is due to AUS climate policies. And subsidies are probably not the underlying issue.

Altoona is both the oldest (72 years) and smallest refinery in Aus according to Wiki.The average age of US refineries is about 40 years, and they are all larger, according to EIA. Altoona is structurally disadvantaged even if now fully amortized, as the following paragraph explains.

Refineries are a classic example of ‘spherical’ scale economies. Their capital cost is a rough function of surface ‘r^2’ while their capacity is a rough function of volume ‘r^3’. Bigger is also inherently more thermally efficient, for the same reasons: Heat is in the volume, heat loss is thru the surface. Bigger is always cheaper. And according to Argonne national labs, ‘newer’ refineries are also more efficient at equivalent size thanks to improved technology, although this also depends on the relative timing of upgrades, which all US refineries do from time to time.

In the US late last year, Marathon announced it was permanently closing its two oldest and smallest refineries, one in California and one in New Mexico, with a direct job loss of 800. Based on jobs, one or both of those are larger than Altoona.

With Greens on your side, who needs enemies?

Is it time for Atlas to shrug?

“…The easiest way for companies to protect their oil refineries from the promised wave of punitive environmental regulations and carbon levies is to move the refining operations and if necessary company headquarters overseas, out of reach of US federal regulators, and then starve the USA of gasoline until the profit from rising prices balances out any Biden imposed taxes and costs…”

Or these companies could start of protest movement by temporarily interrupting their production and services to demonstrate to everybody what the consequences are of the anti-fossil fuel people and their demands that governments are pandering to. When the impacts on the lives of people and the economy start becoming clear from the supply interruption, the reaction would be interesting to watch.

The fossil fuel companies would need to make it clear to the public why they are doing this and what needs to change in the Biden Administration. They need to make it clear to the public that the only technologically feasible alternative to fossil fuels on a large scale is nuclear, but I do not see any large scale nuclear plant building projects in the works.

I realize this will probably not happen because of the obligations to shareholders and customers which fossil fuel companies have to respect and honor. The companies will probably be seen as the bad guys instead of Biden and govt regulators.

If the fossil fuel companies have their eyes on foreign countries, maybe Mexico would be a possibility.

Its not only the loss of the various fuels that are manufactured from crude oil, to meet the demands of the Australian economy, its also the loss of the oil derivatives manufactured from oil that are used to make more than 6,000 products that are the basis of economies and lifestyles. Placing dependency on foreign supplies to meet these demands, may be a national security risk for Australia.

So after absorbing our former steel, plastics, electronics and other manufacturing, most of the word’s refining will also take place in Asia as well. Guess the Aussies need to learn to code too.

Look at this story about Shell which came out this morning. … https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/538392-shell-unveils-plans-for-emissions-cuts

excerpt- “Central to its path forward are the closures of seven refineries and plans to cut down production of gasoline and diesel fuel by 55 percent in the next 10 years …”

Realistically, the U.S. will have to write off Australia and NZ in the military phase of China’s expansions. A similar assessment for England came from Amb. Joe Kennedy leading up to the air and sea war of WW2 around the English Channel.

First, they came for nuclear… reprocessing. Then, they came for hydrocarbons, and to spread the Green blight. Bad, perhaps wicked solutions. Throw another baby on the barbie, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants. it’s over.

Mexico is adding a new refinery in AMLO’s home state even though two other refineries are running at less than 50 percent capacity. Maybe Mexico can export refined products to Australia….before their crude oil from under-invested fields runs out.

The super refineries of China can sell refined products to Australia….maybe with good behavior.

Not to worry, Aussies, Chairman Xi is coming to the rescue with the 3 brand new petchem projects – costing ~$10 billion – which will soon be joined by the massive new $20 billion Shandong petchem complex.
Bonus points will be that Xi will be able to provide your resource-rich country with petrol, manufactured goods, and countless contemporary examples of how a country thrives when its leaders ruthlessly exploits the intellectual, social, and psychological weaknesses of its global competitors.

Do not feel badly.
Your Canadian and American cousins will soon join your legions of listless, unemployed fellow Oz colleagues as we sit around wondering how it all this predictable destruction came to be.

What matters is the refining capacity. Is the capacity now (even after the close) greater than or less than what it was circa 1980?

Some industries are very vulnerable to fuel shortages in Australia. Just 1 delivery on a day failed quality checks & caused disruptions & workarounds for an airport. We’re at the mercy of others.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/25/fuel-rationing-at-melbourne-airport-disrupts-flights

Many uses of petroleum products have synergies to use various fractions of the raw crude & gases produced during refining. Ranges from petrol to engine oil, tars (bitumen), plastics, fertilisers to industrial food processing (burning gas to cook). There are efficiencies for having a working refinery near sea ports, airport & industrial users.

Tell all the bogan leaders in Canberra to go walkabout. Paint themselves, and go out with a stick to survive. I’m not at all knocking the aboriginals. They know how to survive with little, but the smug nonsense from governing elites is dinky di disgusting.

It’s no problem destroying fossil fuel infrastructure.

Green energy infrastructure to replace it will rise out of the sea.

Biden’s new dept. of energy pick Nongqawuse.

Nothing like getting hung with your own rope. Look Ma no brains.

And all this because of the ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-LIFE, ANTI-CO2 regressive agenda based on a tiny warming since the coldest period in 10,000 years

Even more evidence of a MUCH WARMER period before the LIA

https://notrickszone.com/2021/02/11/seals-mammoths-horses-waterfowl-all-tell-us-claims-of-exceptional-modern-warmth-are-bull-hockey/

“He said the decision – which came despite subsidies offered by the Morrison government”.
FAKE Scott Morrison OFFER to cover the real agenda.
Feigned concern . . .
Liberal Party under Morrison receives large donations from Chevron/Sing Pet (refining JV) who will now make up the shortfall by exporting refined products to Australia.
This is a Scott Morrison stitch-up of Melbourne manufacturing!!
This is corruption at it’s most serious and damaging.
Asia eating our local industry with the help of our traitorous Federal and State politicians on both sides.

No problem. China will open a new refinery to meet your demand as long as you don’t get out of line.

Doomed I tell ya. We’re all doomed!
Hyundai Kona Electric Fires Caused By LG Cell Defect (insideevs.com)

Can australians carry arms?

Exxon Altona refinery is not a major refinery by world standards, it’s capacity is only 75 BPD. Granted Australia’s refineries are not large in general The largest refineries in Australia are small by world standards, largest being 138,000 bpd. Total refining capacity is 766700 bpd including Altona. So this is not very significant.