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6 February, 2006
ExxonMobil is being pressured to announce to either reopen its Mobil Oil Australia refinery at Port Stanvac, or face a costly environmental clean-up bill. Mobil Australia, wholly-owned by the US supermajor, has until July 2006 to announce plans for the refinery, which was closed in mid-2003 with the loss of 400 jobs.
A South Australia state parliamentary inquiry recently heard from contractors of Mobil Australia who said burying asbestos waste and other toxic chemicals on both land and sea was commonplace at the refinery in the suburbs of South Adelaide from the 1970s to the 1990s.
A former health representative at the refinery said 3,000 people had been exposed to asbestos, and added, “I saw things which you know are not right…if you say anything, you are out of a job.”
Since ExxonMobil’s decision to mothball the Port Stanvac refinery in 2003, Australia has become a net importer of refined petroleum products.