Firefighters continued to clean up after a massive explosion and fire rocked the Chevron El Segundo Refinery in Southern California late on Oct. 2, sparking a fire that burned for more than nine hours.
The refinery is the second largest in California, and Chevron’s second biggest in the United States. The state’s largest refinery is Marathon Oil Corp.’s Los Angeles Refinery in nearby Carson.
“All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries,” Allison Cook, a Chevron spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The fire was confined to a jet fuel production unit at the refiner, which could cause disruption to the state’s aviation needs. The refinery supplies 40 percent of the jet fuel needed in Southern California. The site employs about 1,225 people with 300 additional contract employees.
Officials were still investigating what caused the explosion.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the fire was just outside of the city limits. She said she is continuing to monitor the situation and any impacts it might have on Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) nearby, she said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office said the governor had been briefed on the incident.
The El Segundo city fire department responded to a fire at the refinery at about 9:30 p.m. and was joined by firefighters from Los Angeles County, Redondo Beach, and Manhattan Beach.
The fire started at a process unit at the southeast corner of the facility, fire officials reported.
Witnesses say they heard a blast before a wall of flames erupted. The fire could be seen miles away.
Video from the fire showed orange flames reaching into the night sky. The last of the visible flames was seen at about 7:15 p.m. according to news helicopters.
No evacuation orders or shelter-in-place orders were issued for neighborhoods living near the refinery.
West Coast oil market traders said the impact on gasoline prices was muted the day after the explosion, and market participants were still assessing the extent of the damage.
California’s oil imports from abroad have increased in the past few years and are expected to continue to expand as two major refineries in the state close. The closures are already expected to stress the state’s dwindling supply, causing some concern about rising gas prices.
It might be too early to tell how Chevron’s refinery closure will affect California’s gasoline supply, but it could have a massive impact, according to Skip York, chief energy strategist at energy consulting firm Turner, Mason & Co. in Houston.
People in the industry have already started speculating the refinery may be so damaged by the explosion that Chevron may not reopen the plant, York said.
“The magnitude of this was big enough that Chevron might say, ‘We’re not spending the money it takes to bring this refinery back online,’” York told The Epoch Times.
The decision to repair the site and restart the processing isn’t easy, he said, and the fire could have damaged equipment and disrupted processing throughout the facility.
“There might be some serious operational issues that need to be reassessed,” York said.
Closure of both refineries would force Southern California retailers to import more transportation fuel from Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, or other countries.
“This is going to make that deficit even bigger,” York said.
