Kurnell oil refinery

The Caltex Kurnell oil refinery is located on the Kurnell Peninsula, south of Botany Bay, just 15 kilometres from the heart of Sydney. It has the capacity to refine 124,500 barrels of crude oil a day. The refinery was built by Caltex in the 1950's and has been an important contributor to the development of Sydney and New South Wales over the last 60 years.

Kurnell Oil Refinery to Continue Until Second Half of 2014
In 2012 Caltex announced it intended to close down the refinery and turn the site into a petroleum import terminal by 2014. The conversion project will include the converting of existing tanks and the installation of a series of pipelines, pumps and infrastructure. The refinery will continue with the refining of crude oil until the second half of 2014. At the same time work will be carried out in converting the site in readiness for its different use after the refinery closes.

Kurnell Oil Refinery Conversion to Involve Work Inside and Outside the Refinery Site
The converting of the Kurnell oil refinery into a petroleum products import terminal involves work to be carried out inside the refinery as well as at the wharf and sub-berthing areas to facilitate the importing of the different fuel products in a wider range of ship sizes. The necessary changes to the site are necessary before any importing and storage can take place. The final stage of the conversion will require the shutting down and removing of the crude oil processing units as well as site rehabilitation.

Kurnell Oil Refinery Built in the 1950's
Caltex began importing oil into Australia in the 1940's, when it was known as Ampol but the two brands were independent of each other in their early days. Both Caltex and Ampol built their own oil refineries in Australia in the 1950's and 1960's. Caltex built the Kurnell oil refinery near Sydney in the 1950's. In later years Ampol acquired the Total oil company and Caltex acquired Golden Fleece. Despite these takeovers both companies remained relatively small compared to the bigger players in the Australian oil industry. In 1995 the situation changed when Ampol and Caltex merged creating the largest oil refiner-marketer in the country, employing about 3,500 people.

Imported Crude Oil Refined at the Kurnell Oil Refinery
Caltex buys crude oil to refine as well as already refined petroleum products on the international markets to resell to Australian consumers. In 2008 the company imported 72 million barrels of crude oil and refinery feedstock that it put through its Kurnell oil refinery in Sydney and its Lytton oil refinery in Brisbane. Both refineries refine the imported crude oil to produce around 50 percent petrol, 30 percent diesel and 15 percent jet fuel, or kerosene. The remaining five percent represents LPG, sulpher, bitumen, lubricants, waxes, fuel oils and other gasses.

Petroleum products produced at the Kurnell oil refinery are marketed through a network of retail service stations operated by both equity and non-equity resellers, as well as direct sales to corporate customers. The sub-brands connected to the Caltex brand include; Delco,Havoline, Bio E10 Unleaded, Vortex premium, StarCash, StarCard and Caltex Star Mart.

In December, 2013, Caltex announced it had sold its Sydney based import bitumen business to Puma Energy The sale is in line with Caltex positioning itself to remain Australia's leading transport fuel supplier and removing itself from the importing and selling of bitumen.
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