Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX: VEA) shares are slipping on Tuesday despite the company announcing progress at its Geelong Refinery.
At the time of writing, the Viva Energy share price is down 2.82% to $2.07. By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 0.1% to 8,811 points.
When zooming out, the ASX energy stock has fallen 10% over the past month but remains up about 1% since the start of 2026.
Here's what the company told the market today.
Image source: Getty Images
What did Viva Energy announce?
In a statement to the ASX, Viva Energy said work to restart the Residue Catalytic Cracking Unit at its Geelong Refinery has been completed.
The unit, known as the RCCU, was damaged by a fire at the refinery on 15 April.
Viva Energy said the RCCU and related units are returning to operation this week. This is expected to lift the refinery back to more than 90% of normal capacity.
However, the update wasn't all good news.
The company said another part of the refinery, the Alkylation unit, will stay offline while it decides whether to repair or replace it.
This means the refinery will have less ability to turn LPG into petrol. Even so, Viva Energy still expects the Geelong Refinery to operate at more than 90% of normal capacity through 2027.
Why is the Viva Energy share price down?
While the refinery restart is positive, the market may still have some concerns about the update.
The Alkylation unit helps convert LPG produced during refining into gasoline, so having it offline will limit some flexibility at the refinery.
While production is expected to return to more than 90% of normal capacity, one part of the refinery could still be out of action for a long time.
Viva Energy also said it is still investigating the cause of the incident and working with insurers on property damage and business interruption claims.
Early findings suggest the fire was caused by the failure of a section of piping within the Alkylation unit, which released fuel that later ignited.
Refining margins remain strong
One part of the update that may interest shareholders is the refining margin.
Viva Energy said its Geelong Refining Margin was US$23.90 a barrel for April and May. This was based on refining intake of 6.5 million barrels.
The company said the result was helped by strong market conditions and lower fuel oil production after the incident.
Nonetheless, the extended Alkylation outage means there is still some uncertainty around how the plant performs from here.
