A Caltex sign is seen at a petrol station in Melbourne April 22, 2010. Caltex Australia Ltd, the country's largest refiner, said on Thursday its short-term refiner margin outlook remains challenging, however it was optimistic about its medium to long-term
A Caltex sign is seen at a petrol station in Melbourne April 22, 2010. Reuters/Mick Tsikas

Caltex Australia finally closed on Tuesday its 58-year-old oil refinery in Kurnell, Sydney. The oil and gas giant now runs the facility as a fuel import terminal. It spend $270 million over two years to convert the plant.

With the conversion came the loss of over 300 jobs. The laid-off workers used to produce 135,000 barrels of oil a day at the peak of the refinery's operation.

But Caltex decided to close the plant in July 2012 as competition from modern, bigger and more efficient refineries in Asia led to losses.

Now, the plant which used to produce oil exported overseas, is used as storage and distribution facility for imported oil. In the process, Caltex Australia reduced manpower from 430 to only 45 employees.

Besides Caltex, BP is Australia is also slated to close its Brisbane refinery in 2015, further reducing the number of refineries in the country.

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