Viva Energy Group Ltd. has initiated restart of a major processing unit taken offline in the wake of a mid-April fire at the gasoline complex of the operator’s 120,000-b/d Geelong refinery in Victoria, Australia.

With works to restart the refinery’s residue catalytic cracking unit (RCCU) completed as of June 23, the RCCU and unidentified associated units are gradually returning to operation, with production anticipated to soon return to more than 90% of normal capacity, Viva Energy said.

Restart of the RCCU restores the Geelong refinery’s ability to increase finished product yields and improve refining margin by enabling a greater proportion of lower-value intermediate products to be converted into higher-value finished products, according to the operator.

Geelong’s alkylation unit, however, remains offline and isolated from other refining operations as an assessment of options to repair or replace the unit continues, the company said.

Based on the current evaluation of damages the alkylation unit sustained during the April 15 fire, Viva Energy said it expects the Geelong refinery to operate without alkylation capacity throughout 2027, limiting the site’s capacity to convert by-product LPG from other refinery processes into gasoline during the outage period.

Viva Energy confirmed an investigation into the cause of the fire remains underway as the company continues to work with insurers regarding property damage and business interruption stemming from the incident.

Preliminary information from the ongoing investigation suggests the fire resulted from a failure occurring inside one of the alkylation unit’s section of piping, which caused a release of fuel that subsequently ignited, the operator said.

The refinery’s crude distillation units and reformer continued to operate in the wake of the April fire, with Viva Energy confirming sufficient fuel inventories already on hand at the time of the incident to maintain normal fuel supplies to refinery customers during production shortfalls.