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The fire was brought under control in a couple of hours this morning, but there's no word on possible damage to the 105-year-old Richmond refinery, which has a capacity of 225,000 barrels of crude oil a day and is Chevron's third-largest, according to Bloomberg News. Bay City News reported that the fire might have been connected to "leaky" equipment. Since a special, low-pollution process is required to refine gasoline in California, any disruption in the state's 21 refineries could have an impact on pump prices.
*Update: Chevron doesn't expect production to be impacted because the refinery was at the beginning of a planned maintenance cycle. But they still don't know the extent of the damage.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.