Ampol (formerly Caltex Australia) plans to restart production from its Lytton oil refinery in Brisbane in September despite the still low refining margins brought about by the COVID-19 crisis.
The refinery will resume production following an extensive period of maintenance work. Ampol brought forward the timing of the planned maintenance when the refinery shut in May because of the weak demand for transport fuels (OGJ Online, Apr. 6, 2020).
Lytton will restart in phase. While the refinery is unlikely to run at full capacity in the initial stages, Ampol hopes to be up to full capacity by the beginning of October.
Fuel demand in Australia is slowly rebuilding and analysts say there are indications that national sales of petrol were down only 11% in July compared with July 2019. Retail fuel margins are strong.
Ampol is taking a cautious approach, believing that forward market conditions for refining are still highly uncertain. The company will continue to review its refining operations and provide regular updates of its refining performance once operations restart.
