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Oil major Shell has announced that it is scheduled to restart its bunker-producing Clyde refinery in New South Wales by the end of July, Reuters reports.

The 86,000 barrels-per-day plant has been shut since November for repairs following a number of outages that dogged the facility for much of last year. It is the longest operating oil refinery in Australia having been built in the early 1920’s and operated by Shell since 1928.

The facility supplies approximately 40 percent of Sydney’s petroleum requirements and around 40 percent of New South Wales’ needs. In regards to the marine fuels market, it is the main source of supply for Port Jackson, one of the two Sydney ports.

Each year the refinery processes about 30 million barrels of crude oil and other feeds. It produces over 4.8 billion litres of petroleum products - equal to around 13 million litres per day.

Besides fuel oil, other major products produced at the facility include petrol (20% being high octane grades), diesel fuel, jet fuel, bitumen and Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The crude oil for the refinery is received from Shell's Gore Bay Terminal, which is located on ten hectares of land in Greenwich, via an 19km 300mm diameter underground pipeline. More than four million tonnes of crude oil, feedstock and products are imported through the terminal for transfer to Shell's Clyde Refinery by pipeline every year.