Fire at Chevron’s LA-area oil refinery expected to impact California gas prices
California drivers can expect temporarily higher prices at the pump after a fire at a Chevron oil refinery lit up the night skies around Los Angeles. Fire crews in El Segundo, California, contained the fire 10 hours after it was triggered by an explosion shortly after 9:30 p.m. PT Thursday.
Capable of processing 285,000 barrels of oil into gasoline each day, the refinery is the second largest in California. It provides about 20% of gasoline consumed in Southern California, and with its location only blocks away from Los Angeles International Airport, it also produces 40% of the region’s jet fuel.
How will the Chevron refinery fire impact prices?
California has shuttered a number of oil refineries in recent years as the state looks to move away from dependence on oil and gas. The total capacity of California oil refineries has declined by roughly 17.6% since 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Following the blaze, Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the website GasBuddy, declared in a social media post that “pricing impacts will likely be nil outside the west coast.”
On a local level, however, consumers should expect to see a slight increase. De Haan said he expects prices to rise 5 to 15 cents per gallon in the near term, with no larger price spike because much of the infrastructure for producing gasoline was unharmed.
On the other hand, de Haan said he expects the price of jet fuel in the Southern California market to see a significant rise.
What’s the local aftermath of the blaze?
The exact cause of the explosion that sparked the Chevron refinery fire is not currently known. By Friday morning, fire crews had contained the fire and were working to extinguish it entirely, according to reporting by ABC 7. It was the fifth fire at the refinery since 2016, the station reported.
“All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries,” a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement to the local ABC station.
Nearby residents reported feeling an explosion that felt like the start of an earthquake, according to the New York Times.
“We held our breath,” said Ed Wolfman, a resident of nearby Manhattan Beach, “waiting for an aftershock.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
