Westernport Refinery was an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

operated by BP at

Crib Point Crib Point is a town on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Crib Point recorded a population o ...

adjacent to Westernport Bay in the Australian state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. It was constructed from 1963 and started operations in 1966. Its last day of operation was 1 April 1985. Construction of the refinery began in December 1963. It was designed with an initial throughput of 1,500,000 tons of crude oil per annum, and able to be expanded to 2,200,000 tons per annum. It was served by a jetty with two berths for import of crude oil and export of refined products in bulk.

Legal dispute

Westernport Refinery was the centre of a significant legal dispute which went to appeal to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom as the highest available appellate court at the time. The dispute arose at the beginning of 1970 and after many court cases and appeals, was finally determined by the Privy Council in July 1977. The focus of the dispute was payment of rates under various agreements with both local and state governments, after BP restructured its corporate arrangements.BP wins rate appeal to Privy Council
'' Canberra Times'' 29 July 1977 page 8

References

Industrial buildings completed in 1965 Industrial buildings in Victoria (Australia) Oil refineries in Australia 1966 establishments in Australia 1985 disestablishments in Australia {{VictoriaAU-struct-stub