Shell to offload last Australian refinery Royal Dutch Shell has put its last remaining Australian refinery up for sale as the oil group looks to reshape its local operations and respond to major shifts in country's energy market. Shell said the proposed disposal of the Geelong refinery near Melbourne was in line with its global strategy of focusing investment on large scale sites, such as its Pulau Bukom refinery in Singapore. "We recognise that other parties, with a different portfolio, may have a different strategy and want to enter or expand in the Australian market," Shell said in a statement. Australia is poised to overtake Indonesia as the biggest importer of refined oil products in the region, as small, outdated refineries are closed and domestic demand continues to rise strongly. The shake-up of the Australian energy market has attracted the attention of the world's largest commodities trading houses. Earlier this year, Trafigura, through its Puma Energy subsidiary, spent US$800m on petrol companies and oil import terminals in Australia. The trading houses see the shift to oil imports as a rare opportunity to make money in developed country with low risks, as does Shell, which is repositioning its downstream business in Australia to focus on retail and bulk fuels as well as terminals and pipelines. However, some trading executives believe the excitement about Australia is overblown and the expected surge in imports may be smaller than predicted due to the approach of a forecast peak in the country's resource investment boom. Shell and Caltex Australia announced the closure of two ageing refineries near Sydney last year, reducing almost a third of the country's refining capacity. In the wake of these announcements, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics estimated Australia's five remaining refineries, including Geelong, would produce just over half the fuel consumed in the country. The rest would be imported. Australia consumes about 1m barrels a day of refined oil products - on a par with a medium-sized European country such as the Netherlands. If the country imports half of its fuel requirements it will overtake Indonesia's current overseas fuel purchases of about 400,000 barrels a day. That figure will rise if Shell cannot find a buyer for Geelong, which processes 120,000 barrels per day of crude oil, most of which is imported from Asia. But even before Thursday's announcement analysts were forecasting that by 2015 Australia would be importing around 650,000 b/d of oil products. "The company's efforts are towards achieving a successful sale," Shell said. But there are options available if a sale with agreeable terms cannot be reached - this could include converting the site to an import terminal. Shell is aiming to conclude the sale process by the end of 2014.