Viva Energy yesterday conducted a historic refuelling of the Royal Australian Navy vessel, HMAS Sirius from its Gore Bay Terminal. This refuelling marks over 20 years since the last naval vessel, HMAS Westralia, came to the facility.
Gore Bay Terminal Manager James Crowden said this is a significant milestone in Viva Energy’s relationship with this vitally important customer and that he was proud to be part of servicing the Australian Defence Force.
“Since winning the contract in 2015 to supply marine fuel to the Australian Defence Force we have been working closely with the team on how we service them in the most efficient way. Given their strategic position at Garden Island, Gore Bay Terminal is a convenient location for us to be able to refuel their vessels as well as this unique event of HMAS Sirius being refuelled directly from the terminal.
Just two weeks ago, Viva Energy had the unique opportunity to tour the flagship vessel, HMAS Canberra which was also refuelled using the Gore Bay Terminal’s barge, ICS Allegiance. HMAS Canberra is a very impressive vessel in terms of scale and capability and was critical in the humanitarian effort deployed to Fiji following the devastating impacts of Hurricane Winston in 2016.
While HMAS Sirius is a smaller vessel in dimensions than HMAS Canberra, being about the same size as the medium range vessels that regularly come to Gore Bay, she is vitally important as part of the Royal Australian Navy’s afloat support capabilities which provides operational support for the rest of the naval fleet by providing fuel.
“We are very proud to have the Australian Defence Force as our customer and we were very proud to refuel HMAS Sirius from our Gore Bay Terminal as we know the important work that our Defence men and women undertake each and every day.”