Welcome everyone today to the Viva refinery in Corio. Obviously, we wish we were here under better circumstances, but we are very pleased to have here, today, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Energy, Libby Coker, the Member for Corangamite, Ella George, who is the Member for Lara, and Scott Wyatt, the CEO of Viva, and Bill Patterson as well. We are enormously thankful that in the midst of all that has occurred here, there have been no injuries as a result of the incident. And that is very much a source for gratitude from the perspective of the local community. But with no further ado, let me hand over to the Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Richard. This has been an opportunity for me to talk directly to the workers here at Viva. The good news is, as the Deputy Prime Minister has said, that no one was injured in this incident that occurred. And that is a tribute to the professionalism and to the management issues that have been put in place to deal with an incident like this. There was also an opportunity to thank the fire brigade and officials who were here as well dealing with this issue, and a chance to say thank you for what you do each and every day. This is an incident that obviously is regrettable, particularly given the timing in which it has occurred. But the advice that we've received today is that 80 per cent of diesel production is continuing. 80 per cent of aviation fuel is continuing, ongoing. It's been slowed down just slightly because of the circumstances which are there. But 60 per cent of petrol production is proceeding today as well. We hope, of course, as does the company, that that ramps up over the coming period as well. In addition, can I say that it's good that we can announce that BP have joined the companies that have an agreement with Export Finance Australia to reach commercial arrangements for additional supplies that might be available. This follows the hundred million litres of supply we were able to secure in two lots, one from Brunei and one from Korea, over the past 24 hours. That has been positive. That will add to the supply at a time to deal with what the whole world is dealing with. Which is the impact of the Middle East conflict is having a direct impact on our region, but indeed on the entire global economy. Our job is not to pretend that we're immune from the impacts which are there. They are real, as they are right around the world. Our job is to do as best as we can to restrict the impact that this will have. And that's precisely what we are doing each and every day. In addition to that, I've been able to thank President Prabowo of Indonesia for the increased access that we have to fertiliser. This is a significant addition. More than 20% of Australia's urea needs, in addition to what was already available, has been agreed to be supplied from Indonesia. And that is a product directly of the warm relationship that we have with our friends in Indonesia. So, I'll hand to the Energy Minister before we're happy to take questions. But I do want to thank Viva for showing us around today. For the ongoing work that they're doing. They're working around the clock to meet Australia's needs.
CHRIS BOWEN, MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. Well, the world's throwing a lot at fuel supply in Australia, in particular at the moment. And this has been a very negative incident that we've had to manage. But the good news for Australian people is that government and industry are coming together and managing this in the best interest of Australia and the Australian people. And the fact that we can update the Australian people today and say that 80 per cent of diesel and jet fuel here continues under production, 60 per cent of petrol - with Viva working very hard to try and get that 60 per cent back up to normal levels in the coming period. Can, I think - give Australians that reassurance, that while this is an event that everyone would wish hadn't happened and was really bad timing, really is being managed as best as it possibly can. I want to thank Scott and Viva. From the first call at 11pm or thereabouts two nights ago, through the last 24 and 48 hours in constant contact, government and industry working so closely together. And as the PM said, this is, I think, showing that Australia's fuel supplies in the most difficult and risky circumstances internationally, are being managed as well as they possibly can be across government and industry. Just some people will be interested in Avgas, which is the type of fuel, not aviation fuel, but just used for the smaller planes, private planes. We have good stocks of that, 116 days' worth of stock on that in hand. So, that has been also affected here, but we only use 6 million litres of that a month. So, I think that Australians who are worried about those smaller planes, those private planes, primarily, can take reassurance that our stocks are very good. Prime Minister's announcement of BP joining Viva, Ampol, IOR and Park as companies participating in the EFA scheme, to go and get cargoes for Australians is a very good one. BP is raring to go. BP announces particularly important for Western Australia. They're a particularly important supplier of fuel in Western Australia, and I know Western Australians can take some reassurance that they'll be out now getting cargoes like the ones that the Prime Minister referred to, which is very important, particularly in relation to the Prime Minister's visit to Brunei, to secure those extra 100 million leaders; 50 million litres from Brunei, 50 million leaders from Korea was very, very important. And obviously we'll make further announcements. As you know, every Saturday I hold a press conference. I announce and update the Australian people on how stock we have in hand of diesel, petrol and jet fuel in the country. How many ships are on their way to Australia, how many billions of litres are locked in for the next four weeks. I've been doing that every Saturday for the last many weeks. We'll do that again tomorrow. So, there'll be further updates tomorrow on that, that is designed to give Australians full visibility as to the fuel supply situation. I've done that for weeks now and we'll do that again tomorrow and we'll provide further updates at that point. Again, I just want to reiterate the Prime Minister's thanks to the emergency services, some of whom we've just had a quick chat to, and to Viva and the workers here, who in the most difficult circumstances have responded in a really Australian way, rising to the challenge and making sure that best interests of Australians are put first.
SCOTT WYATT, VIVA ENERGY CEO: Yeah, look on behalf of the team here at Geelong and Viva Energy, I'd like to warmly welcome and thank Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Bowen and State members for joining us here this morning. The outreach from federal and state level government over the last 36 hours has been overwhelming and indeed from our customers and suppliers and general community has been generally overwhelming and been the offers of support and help and just generally being with us through this time has been - has helped us a lot. So, thank you for all of your support. We prepare and take great steps to ensure these sorts of events never happen, but we also equally take a lot of preparation to ensure if they do, that we recover well and we keep people safe and our community safe. And that was played out in spades over the last 36 hours. I was able to be here quite early on the scene and see the responders come together with our team, manage the situation to contain it, ensure it didn't spread, kept people safe and ensure that we were able to recover from the incident which has, you know, we have done over the last period of time and in the process now of truly making the area safe. That's been our number one focus is just obviously responding to the incident and keeping people safe and I'm so pleased and relieved that that has been the case. Obviously, we now start to look forward to how we go forward from here. We've still got some work to do to fully contain the area before we're in a position where we can start to be confident, to be able to safely lift production. As the Prime Minister said though, we are still - a lot of units were unaffected by this. We're still making - we're still producing, with making about 80 per cent of diesel and 60 per cent of petrol. We do hope to be able to lift that over the coming weeks and as I've said previously, any shortfalls in production we're very confident that we can cover that with our import program which is quite substantial over the next couple of months. So, yes, it's been, obviously, a challenging event for our team. It's a shocking incident. I'm so pleased that the team's safe and we're obviously taking great care of our people and the recovery from here, not just in terms of the operations, but obviously continue to rebuild confidence with the team and the community is going to be our number one focus. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's the Government's assessment of what that means for fuel supplies? Should people be starting to think about moving to level three restrictions? Is that a conversation you're preparing to make?
PRIME MINISTER: The Government's put in place the four stages in order to plan and in order to prepare for circumstances which are predominantly impacted by global events, not by events here. So, the event here will not lead to any change. We'll give an update tomorrow about fuel supplies that are on hand. Fuel is continuing to come in, and indeed with yesterday's announcement of additional supplies, that is very positive. The fact that 60 per cent of petrol production is continuing is actually very positive given the circumstances. People have seen - you were with me - but we all saw the visuals of what was a serious fire. The fact that 80 per cent of diesel is continuing and 80 per cent of jet fuel is continuing as well, there's been a slight slowdown there because of this incident, but that is very positive going forward.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in regards to the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump has told Sky News, I'm not happy with Australia because they were not there when we asked them to be there. What does Donald Trump, the US President, mean when he says we asked them to be there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a question for Donald Trump by definition rather than by myself. And I note, I've seen the Sky News footage and the way that the question was asked and the way that the follow up was asked as well, and there wasn't an answer given.
JOURNALIST: Why don't you call -
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister -
PRIME MINISTER: Hang on, one at a time.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how are you clarifying Australia's position given Donald Trump keeps saying that Australia is not helping when asked?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a question for President Trump.
JOURNALIST: Why haven't you called President Trump or attempted to call him to clarify precisely?
PRIME MINISTER: We've engaged with the US administration constructively. We'll continue to do so.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, just to clarify, Australia was not asked for help in any way from the US?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I refer to my previous answers. Day after day after day when I've been asked, they're exactly the same. There's been no new requests at all. And indeed, President Trump has himself said that he has got this and he has made that position clear. There's been no change in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Doesn't it surprise you when you hear this time and time again, and Donald Trump has just said this again, you're not helping?
PRIME MINISTER: That's a question for President Trump. What my job is, is to engage constructively with the US Administration. That's what we do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, was there any informal request from the US for assistance?
PRIME MINISTER: I've answered that on a number of occasions. The answer is -
JOURNALIST: The President of the United States, with respect, is saying that -
PRIME MINISTER: The answer is the same. I've seen the footage and the way that the question was asked. Australia's position is the same today as it was yesterday, the same as it was the day before.
JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister said, 'we would ask them to be there,' though, Prime Minister. The quote from the US President is, 'we asked them to be there,' Prime Minister. That's a direct quote from the US President. That's pretty black and white, what he said.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've answered the question.
JOURNALIST: Given the economic impacts of what we're seeing around the world and on Australia, are you committed to delivering the Budget on May 12?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, we're committed to delivering the Budget on May 12. Work is continuing. The Budget will be settled later than usual because we're living in turbulent times. There are different announcements every day from overseas about the circumstances of what is happening in the Middle East. There was a new announcement today that we welcome that the US has brokered a peace between Lebanon and Israel. We call upon all parties to agree and to abide by this ceasefire. That's what we want to see. We want to see a de-escalation. We want to see the Strait of Hormuz opened. We want to see the freedom of navigation that is so important for global trade that we all rely upon around the world. We want to see that continuing to be available in the future. This is an impact on the other side of the world that has had an impact, particularly on our region, because it is our region, the Asian region, that particularly receives the product through the Strait. And so, the disruption that has occurred has had a major impact on the global economy. We're not immune from that. What we are doing is doing everything that we can, from changing the fuel standards here in Australia to allow the more domestic use of fuel that would normally be exported, by engaging with international partners to secure supplies of fuel and fertiliser and other products. By making sure as well, that at level two, we're asking that Australians do what they can to conserve fuel going forward. We've put in place the four stages which are there. We're communicating that to the public tomorrow. I will be standing up once again and speaking of the number of ships that are on their way to Australia, the different levels of fuel in terms of days that are on hand in reserves, we released 20 per cent of our reserves. I mean, thank goodness we brought our reserves back to Australia from the United States. Had we not done that, then there would have been a lot more pressure on the system.
JOURNALIST: You've maybe changed your mind because of the obviously nasty incident here, but it could have been a lot worse if this was knocked out entirely. Do we need more oil refineries in Australia, and has this incident maybe changed your mind about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, nothing's changed my mind. There were six refineries in Australia when we left office in 2013 and when we came back there were two. That was an error. One of the things, if you look at what my Government has done, whether it is the work that we've done in Whyalla, the work that we've done in Mount Isa, the work that we've done in Gladstone, in the Hunter, in Tasmania, my Government hasn't sat back and watched important industries just close. What we've done is be prepared to intervene. We have very much a Future Made in Australia agenda that's about making sure that our economy is more resilient. And one of the themes of the Budget on May 12 will be resilience, resilience in two forms. One, making more things here in Australia, leaving us less vulnerable to international events. But secondly as well, how do we give Australians a stake in our economy? And that is an important component of that as well.
JOURNALIST: Would you support a diesel plant in Gladstone, as is backed by the Crisafulli government?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will support proposals that are put forward in detail and we await - we're willing to work with the private sector, with any state government as well. That's what we do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with the high reliance on imports as a result of this Geelong fire in already a very stretched market, won't motorists, particularly here in Victoria, expect to find a higher price of the bowser? Some experts predicting even 8 cents a litre?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we are doing is making sure that we maximise the opportunities for supply. That's what we're doing and that's what the company here is doing as well. Working hard to get it back up to the levels that we want to see.
JOURNALIST: How long do you expect - and this might be one for Mr Wyatt - how long do you expect that it will take to get back to full production? And also, what's your response to some of the speculation this morning that a lack of maintenance is responsible for this fire?
MR WYATT: Yeah, as I said before, we've been running this facility for 70 years. Over 70 years. It requires regular maintenance. It's had regular upgrades through that time. And most recently, we've upgraded the refinery to produce low-sulphur petrol with a significant amount of investment from the support of the Federal Government. So, this is a plant that constantly requires nurturing and we do that regularly as part of what we do to prepare to ensure these sorts of events don't happen. And I can assure the community that we take that role very, very seriously. We also prepared to manage the unlikely event as well as we can, and we've done a tremendous job of doing that over the last couple of days. In terms of getting back to full production, our first priority continues to be maintaining safety and ensuring that we can make safe the area that was affected. That's ongoing. That will largely, I think, be completed over the course next couple of days, certainly by the end of the weekend. A lot of units are unaffected. They're still in production and that's why we're still able to maintain 80 per cent of fuel supply from this plant as we make safe and we can restore further production, we hope to be able to lift that further and supplement any shortfalls on an ongoing basis just from our general import program. So, I think there'll be no impact to what we supply into the Victorian market as a result of this incident. I'm very confident in that.
JOURNALIST: Will this increase costs for you? Obviously, if there's a shortfall, you're importing more, does that cost more and is that cost then passed on to certain stations?
MR WYATT: No. I mean, yes, there may well be some extra cost. But look, we've taken our role extremely seriously ever since the Middle East situation broke out. I mean, our team has worked tirelessly to maintain supply to all of our customers in the community. This team at this site have taken that role very, very seriously. And this event is so disappointing to everyone on site because we know how important what we do is to the community. So, that's our fundamentals. Supply, running safely, supplying the community. Cost is a secondary issue.
JOURNALIST: So, cost is going to go up?
MR WYATT: No, I do not think cost will go up. The cost will go up for us.
JOURNALIST: But you will pass that on.
MR WYATT: No.
JOURNALIST: You're ruling out passing that on?
MR WYATT: Whatever cost this, the assessment costs the refinery, will be absorbed in our refinery operations. We will not be passing that on to the community.
JOURNALIST: Just in terms of production, can we talk about time frame? Can you suggest whether or not it's going to be weeks, a month or a couple of months before you get up to 100 per cent production?
MR WYATT: Until we get in and are able to obviously safely get into the area that was affected, assess the damage and determine what it is going to take to restore those units. I can't answer that question, but we can run this facility close to full production without those two units. They're not significant impacts to the rest of the site. Yes, they impair the way we operate the site, but there's work going on at the moment about how we operate the site for an extended period of time to as close as full production as we possibly can get. So, I'm confident we'll find some good solutions for that.
JOURNALIST: Did you push back maintenance because you're trying to meet the demand here?
MR WYATT: No, not at all. We would never do that. Maintenance and safety is always first priority and we don't take compromises in that regard, and we haven't done throughout this period.
JOURNALIST: This particular area where the fire was, was the capacity of production actually ramped up significantly just before this fire as a result of the demand?
MR WYATT: No, no, as part of our normal program, we undertook a significant maintenance program last year. It's a five-yearly maintenance program that we ran. That was completed. We have maintenance programs, different units, obviously on an ongoing basis as well. But this year was largely a pretty clean year from a maintenance perspective, allowing us to run our plant at normal capacity. We don't push capacity beyond what's safe. We would never do that.
JOURNALIST: So, the production did not go up? I'm not asking about maintenance.
MR WYATT: Our production went up over last year because we're through a major maintenance program and we're in a period where it's just normal operations for us. We are able to produce quite well through the site and we're doing that, but we don't push production beyond what's safe, within our limits.
JOURNALIST: Scott, what's the damage bill? Do you think tens of millions of dollars?
MR WYATT: I don't know. I don't know until we get in and assess the damage. We haven't been able to get close to it yet.
JOURNALIST: Will you need help from the Federal Government in terms of getting this back up quickly? And I guess a question for the Prime Minister, is the Government willing to provide support to get this up?
MR WYATT: We won't need help, but we have continued to get help from the Federal Government throughout this period and beyond. I mean, the investment we've made in low sulphur gasoline, I said before came with good support, strong support from the Federal Government because of the importance these plants have to energy security. And that's more obvious than ever through the period of the last few weeks. Prime Minister, one more thing.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, would you invest more in the Geelong Refinery? Would you invest in greater capacity here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we made a decision just weeks ago to renew the support that we provide for Australia's two refineries. That's what we did. That's the difference between us and what happened under the former government. So, can I conclude by just thanking Scott and the team, but particularly thank all the workers who we got to meet today. Something like this in your workplace would be understandably distressing. So, I want to thank all the workers for showing us firsthand what they do for the efforts that they've made over the last 48 hours and thank the emergency workers who've been here as well, on site and continuing to make sure that the place is got safe and the work that they do. You know, at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character. And that is what we have seen once again here at Viva over the last 48 hours. Thanks very much.
