SHELL Australia has again failed to guarantee the future of its refinery operations in Geelong, as the company looks to scale back in the face of increased Asian competition and reduced margins.
Cameron Best | December 6th, 2011
SHELL Australia has again failed to guarantee the future of its refinery operations in Geelong, as the company looks to scale back in the face of increased Asian competition and reduced margins.
While the company issued its standard “we never speculate on speculation” line, it admitted the Geelong refinery faced challenging times in a highly competitive environment.
“While the company does not speculate on the future of any of its assets, it is worth noting significant investment decisions made by Shell in the last 12 months,” Shell Australia spokesman Paul Zennaro said.
Over the past year, Shell has invested $47.5 million in Barwon Water’s Northern Water Plant and $20 million in new bitumen facilities at the Geelong refinery.
The company also has an ongoing maintenance program at the refinery, despite the decision to axe 22 maintenance jobs at the refinery in October.
At the time, refinery general manager Mark Schubert said it was a difficult, but necessary, decision aimed at improving the refinery’s sustainability.
Shell made the decision to close its smaller Clyde refinery in Sydney earlier this year, converting it and the company’s Gore Bay Terminal into a fuel import terminal.
The company blamed the rise of “mega-refineries” in the Asian region, which depressed industry margins for refined products.
Both relatively small in world terms, the ageing refineries at Geelong and Clyde process nearly 200,000 barrels a day, or about 25 per cent of Australia’s petrol needs.
Shell Australia vice-president of Australia downstream Andrew Smith told The Australian Financial Review there was no commitment on expanding Geelong in the wake of Clyde’s closure.
Mr Smith said the 120,000 barrel-a-day Geelong refinery was a better economic proposition than Clyde but there were a “cupboard full of options” for Geelong.
Scheduled to be completed next year, Shell’s bitumen manufacturing plant in Geelong will produce about 160,000 tonnes of bitumen per year in three key grades.
The company supplies more than one-third of all bitumen used for private and government roads.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
