A fire that broke out at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery that supplies jet fuel for Los Angeles international airport (LAX) was still burning on Friday morning after an explosion at the plant.
The press office of Gavin Newsom, the California governor, had confirmed that the fire erupted on Thursday night on the outskirts of the city, with a county official adding that the flames had been confined to one area.
It is Chevron’s second-biggest refinery in the US, supplying a fifth of all motor vehicle fuels and 40% of the jet fuel consumed in southern California.
No injuries were reported and all workers at the refinery were accounted for, said Allison Cook, a Chevron spokesperson, in an email to the Reuters news agency.
The cause of the blaze was not clear, the Los Angeles Times reported, while CBS said firefighters were called to the refinery in Los Angeles county after reports of an explosion.
“Our office is coordinating with local and state agencies to ... ensure public safety,” Newsom’s press office said on X.
The refinery’s rated capacity is 290,000 barrels a day, and its main products are gasoline, jet and diesel, Chevron says on its website. Its total storage capacity is 12.5m barrels in about 150 major tanks.
The Los Angeles fire department was ready to assist with any request for aid, said Karen Bass, the mayor.
“There is no known impact to LAX at this time,” she added referring to the city’s busy international airport.
Mark Rogers told the LA Times he was playing soccer at Aviation Park, a few miles from the Chevron plant, when the apparent explosion took place. “I thought we got nuked or something,” Rogers, 34, told the paper. The referee cancelled their game due to the heavy smoke, it reported.
The fire broke out in the refinery’s Isomax 7 unit, which converts mid-distillate fuel oil into jet fuel, two sources said.
It was unclear how it would affect the refinery’s ability to produce jet fuel, and whether wider output had been affected.
The fire was unlikely to have a large impact on the wider oil market, two analysts told Reuters, but California gasoline prices could rise as the state’s fuel market is isolated from other US refining centers in the midwest and on the Gulf Coast.
Reuters contributed reporting
