Australian oil retailer flags refinery shutdown
Updated
![Australian oil retailers warn carbon trading could push them offshore. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/world_oil_rtr_181204.jpg "Australian oil retailers warn carbon trading could push them offshore. [Reuters]")
Australian oil retailers warn carbon trading could push them offshore. [Reuters]
Leading oil retailer Caltex Australia has warned that current proposals for carbon trading could shut down petroleum refineries across Australia.
The chief executive Des King says emissions trading could leave Caltex refineries exposed to competition with refineries which don't pay carbon costs.
He says Mobil has already threatened to go offshore, and imports could quickly rise from 25 percent, to half of Australia's petrol supply.
"Those refineries should be in the scheme, but we've argued that the carbon costs on those refineries should elevate as the offshore refineries elevate, because a quarter of all petroleum products are imported and they are imported from countries that don't pay a carbon cost."
