A massive fire erupted in a jet fuel production unit at Chevron’s tab El Segundo refinery near Los Angeles on Thursday night, causing big flames and billowing smoke from one of the largest refineries on the US West Coast.
No injuries were reported and all workers at the refinery had been accounted for, Chevron spokesperson Allison Cook said in an emailed statement.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion at the facility in the suburb of El Segundo, which supplies jet fuel for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Local media said the refinery had been contained by early Friday.
The fire broke out in the refinery's Isomax 7 unit, which converts mid-distillate fuel oil into jet fuel, the two sources said.
It was unclear what effect the fire would have on the refinery’s ability to produce jet fuel.
Isomax 7 produces jet fuel along with the refinery’s two crude distillation units for LAX airport, located just north of the refinery.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, "There is no known impact to LAX at this time."
US WTI crude futures prices were trading 46 cents higher on Friday at $60.94 per barrel as of 0826 GMT, but were heading for a greater-than 7% loss on the week. The fire is unlikely to have a large impact on the wider oil market, two analysts told Reuters, but could cause a rise in gasoline prices in California.
The El Segundo refinery is Chevron's second biggest refinery in the United States and produces about 40% of southern California’s jet fuel and 20% of its gasoline.
The blaze continued to burn after midnight at the refinery, Cook said.
"Chevron fire department personnel, including emergency responders from the cities of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach are actively responding to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo Refinery," Cook said. "All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries."
Local officials said no evacuation orders were issued for nearby residents, some of whom live in apartment buildings across the street from the refinery.
Residents in Manhattan Beach, located southwest of the refinery, were told to shelter-in-place until 2 a.m.
Los Angeles residents posted numerous videos online of the fire saying they were stunned by the noise of the explosion. A University of California-San Diego camera captured video of the explosion shortly after 9:30pm PDT (0430 GMT).
The fireball when the fire erupted turned the sky orange in the western Los Angeles area as did the refinery's safety flare, which was set off due to the blaze.
Safety flares, which emit a tall plume of flame, are used when refineries cannot process hydrocarbons normally.
In addition to Chevron, state and federal safety agencies will probe the fire after the blaze is extinguished, they said.
In December 2022, there was an isolated fire inside the refinery but it was quickly extinguished.
The refinery's total storage capacity is 12.5 million barrels in about 150 major tanks. The sources said they were not sure how much jet fuel the refinery currently had in storage.
