Following an explosion of a yet-to-be-determined nature, a large fire broke out on Thursday night at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery in the Los Angeles area.
The fire, which was first seen at around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, was later contained, the police in El Segundo said, adding there wasn’t a call for residents to evacuate.
Authorities have not received any reports of injuries of fatalities, El Segundo Mayor Chris Pimentel told local news station KCAL News.
Chevron’s 280,000-barrels-per-day refinery in El Segundo has its own fire department, which responded first to the incident.
“We were able to respond with Chevron fire immediately, our station is about a .25 mile away from the gates of Chevron,” El Segundo’s Pimentel said.
“Obviously, we are very concerned, and there is a lot of investigative work to be done to see what has happened.”
As of the early hours in LA on Friday, there were no updates about the cause of the massive fire.
The fire has been contained and “there is no cause for alarm for El Segundo or the surrounding areas,” LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell told KCAL News.
The El Segundo Refinery, which began operations in 1911, is one of the biggest on the U.S. West Coast. It is one of the few that oil majors aren’t closing due to California’s assault on the oil and gas sector in recent years.
Several major refiners have decided to discontinue gasoline production at refineries in the state, due to the Californian mandates for clean energy vehicles and changed market dynamics.
Phillips 66, for example, has started shutting down its 139,000-bpd Los Angeles-area refinery. Units at the plant will idle in phases through Q4 2025, with the facility permanently offline by year-end.
Between Phillips 66’s LA facility and Valero’s Benicia refinery, scheduled to close in 2026, the state is set to lose roughly 17% of its refining capacity—and that’s likely to drive the high gasoline prices even higher.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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