Leak Hospitalizes 14 at Caltex Refinery in Australia

Fourteen workers were hospitalized and 30 treated for injuries following a 24 September hydrogen sulphide leak at Caltex Australia Ltd.’s refinery in Sydney. Less than a week later, on 29 September, another suspected gas leak forced evacuation of hundreds of oil workers at the country’s second largest refinery. The incidents occurred near a new, A$395 million clean fuels plant inside the Kurnell refinery, a major producer of transport fuels in Australia. Caltex, 50% owned by US-based Chevron, is behind schedule and has been burdened with unplanned maintenance and outages at the 124,000 barrel-per-day refinery.