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News & Current Events Apr 16, 2026 at 5:58 AM

Australia refinery fire worsens fuel supply crunch amid Iran war

Posted by monotvtv

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monotvtv Apr 16, 2026 +33
This isnt bad luck, this is a supply chain designed for peacetime hitting a wartime reality. The next 2 weeks will be ugly.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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the_colonelclink Apr 16, 2026 +28
No. Australia’s oil supply chain wasn’t even designed for peace time. They just privatised an import market and called it today.
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Absolutedisgrace Apr 17, 2026
It was also made worse by previous governments who made short sighted decisions that pretty much lined their own pockets.
0
randytankard Apr 16, 2026 +6
We've had to pay a couple of billion of taxpayers dollars to keep the 2 large remaining refineries here otherwise they'd have closed up about 5-6 years ago. So Governments have given money to oil companies to try and maintain some level of onshore processing but the oil companies rather just import finished product from SE Asia. We do produce a small amount of crude but that's also exported to refineries overseas.
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Educational-Art-8515 Apr 16, 2026 +3
It's got nothing to do with "fuel companies rather importing the finished product from SE Asia" - they are just responding to market demand. Australians do not want to pay higher prices for fuel that would be incurred from having any material domestic refining industry. Blaming fuel companies for this is absurd.
3
dmk_aus Apr 16, 2026 +2
Australians pay high prices. The companies move processing to countries with less worker, safety and environmental regulations so they can have more margin.
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randytankard Apr 16, 2026 +4
Well you can lick the boots of the oil companies mate, I ain't stopping you.
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Glum_Bat937 Apr 16, 2026 +6
You are trolling, I’m fairly certain. Educational-Art-8515’s comment was so sensible that in a normal forum it wouldn’t even need to be said.
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wiggum55555 Apr 17, 2026 +1
Even our peacetime fuel supply chain is horrifyingly fragile... we only hold 25-35 days of TOTAL national fuel stocks at any given time... covering petrol, diesel & aviation fuel. The seafreight transit time from Singapore and South Korea to Australia is 21-28 days. *(which is where most of our fuel imports come from.. in normal times).* The global average for developed nations is 90 days reserves. Smart countries are holding a lot more, in the order of +200 days. Here though... we prefer to just wing it and live dangerously. she'll be right mate. it'll work out. (we hope).
1
CupEcstatic2721 Apr 16, 2026 +18
After the trial of the arsonists in Poland and the incident in Serbia, one involuntarily begins to suspect that Russia also had a hand in this, although the facts suggest otherwise.
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fat_pokemon Apr 17, 2026 +2
The plan was more than 60 years old. Fire was legit a engineering failure.
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clamorous_owle Apr 16, 2026 +12
>The ‌cause of ⁠the blaze and the extent of the damage was not immediately clear. So could this be intentional?
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Jerri_man Apr 16, 2026 +24
Most likely its the result of ramping up production while keeping costs and maintanence at a (continued) minimum.
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GreyClay Apr 16, 2026 +1
It’s like the literally dozens of Russian aircraft lost to accidents during the war in Ukraine - here I’m only referring to the ones that **weren’t** shot down. The increased tempo of the war in Ukraine has meant that Russian planes and helicopters are flying far more and yet being serviced less frequently / thoroughly than before. In the same way, as Jerri_man said the refinery would have been working at above their usual capacity level and some kind of breakdown in the machinery has occurred, that likely wouldn’t have occurred (or at least not occurred for another few years) had the Iran war not happened. Our government is *terrified* of fuel shortages - they know that our right wing populist party will use the fuel shortages to garner support. So our Prime Minister has been on unscheduled trips to Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia trying to guarantee our fuel (and fertiliser) supplies.
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Silver_Middle_7240 Apr 16, 2026 +2
It could be, but probably not. Refinery fires are not unusual
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stonertear Apr 16, 2026 +4
Considering the last one was in 1988 in Australia. Very unusual.
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Silver_Middle_7240 Apr 16, 2026 +2
Australia only has two refineries. The last accidental fire at a refinery was a couple months ago, in texas
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stonertear Apr 16, 2026 +4
That's not in Australia though
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____DEADPOOL_______ Apr 16, 2026 +2
[3 hours from where I live](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Texas+QLD+4385/@-28.8533796,151.1060933,59149m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x6ba2900d7dd85a6b:0x400eef17f20a950!8m2!3d-28.854722!4d151.168333!16zL20vMDJ3bm1n?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D), [bruh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas,_Queensland), but no fire happened there.
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stonertear Apr 16, 2026 +3
There you hvae it - theres a Texas is QLD
3
____DEADPOOL_______ Apr 16, 2026 +1
I live near a neighbourhood that has some or all US state names as street names. Where I live, it's all mountain and volcano names.
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mrmikehunt51 Apr 16, 2026 -1
This is not true. The ones that they do have are usually from human f*** ups/ operator error. Surprisingly, lightning has caused quite a few over the years striking tanks as well but definitely not common. Start up is the most dangerous time for a refinery.
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randytankard Apr 16, 2026 -1
It was caused by an LNG leak.
-1
wiggum55555 Apr 17, 2026 +1
This is a good 10 minute explainer that popped up a coupld weeks ago. (ignoring the fact that he says "2002" in the first sentence but means 2022... ) The rest is simple, fact based and informative IMO. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu6xnDSZyHM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu6xnDSZyHM)
1
JellyFish152 Apr 16, 2026
Nah, she'll be right mate.
0
NetflixVodka Apr 16, 2026
Front fell off.
0
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