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Shell Australia Ltd. has announced that its Clyde refinery in Sydney would temporarily shut down its refining process units at the end of November.

During the shutdown, no processing of petroleum products will occur at the refinery, with all supplies to the market sourced from imports.

In a statement, the company said "This decision follows extensive and ongoing maintenance work to address unplanned outages at the refinery that have disrupted operations throughout the last 12 months."

The shutdown also coincides with further planned work on the Hydrodesulphurisation Unit (HDS), which is being modified to enable production of diesel with 10ppm sulphur to comply with Federal Government fuel quality specification changes.

Shell said that it did not expect the decision to have any impact on the supply of fuel products to customers.

The 100,000 barrels-per-day Clyde refinery is a main source of supply for Port Jackson, one of the two Sydney ports.

Due to the vast distances between cities in Australian the regional bunker markets generally source product from their local refineries. Refinery closures therefore have a direct impact on bunkering if external product sources are not used to supply the local market.

Shell said the temporary halt in refining processes will give management and employees the chance to "focus on sustainable improvement in the refinery’s operating performance and reliability.

"It will also reduce the risk of refining operations impacting on reliability of supply over the upcoming key holiday driving season," the company added.

Shell said its refinery employees were informed of the decision this morning and no jobs will be lost as a result of the refinery temporarily operating in full import mode.

The company also commented that it intended to bring the refinery back to full production at the conclusion of the improvement process. The shutown is expected to run through until at least December, according to media sources.