Los Angeles Gasoline Rises to 17-Month High Following Blast
Wholesale gasoline in Los Angeles surged to the highest level in more than a year after an explosion at an Exxon Mobil Corp. oil refinery in Southern California.
An electrostatic precipitator exploded in a fluid catalytic cracker at the company’s 149,500-barrel-a-day Torrance plant, according to a person familiar with the incident, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
The catalytic cracker had been shut along with an alkylation unit because of a compressor breakdown, a second person familiar with the situation said yesterday, also asking not to be identified.
Fluid catalytic crackers convert heavy petroleum products such as vacuum gasoil into lighter fuels including gasoline and diesel. The blast threatens to shrink fuel supplies in California when they’re already at a six-year seasonal low.
“The Exxon Mobil Torrance refinery has experienced an incident,” Todd Spitler, an Exxon spokesman, said by e-mail from Beaumont, Texas. “Emergency procedures have been activated to address the incident.
California-blend gasoline, or Carbob, in Los Angeles jumped 8.5 cents a gallon to 38 cents above futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. It’s the biggest premium since Sept. 12, 2013.
Los Angeles Carbob was 14.5 cents over the same fuel in San Francisco, the biggest premium since April 11.
The incident began at about 8:50 a.m. local time, Spitler said. Four contract workers were taken to the Long Beach Medical Center for evaluation of minor injuries. The Torrance Fire Department called for a voluntary shelter-in-place order near the refinery, Spitler said.
The plant had finished repairs on the alkylation unit after finding holes in its reactor and was restarting it when the catalytic cracker’s compressor went down, the second person said.
CalOSHA confirms that filtration device exploded, causing the blast at #Torrance oil refinery http://t.co/51gH52pgxQ pic.twitter.com/rM4cxl4m9F
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) February 19, 2015A man on his way to work captured the Torrance refinery explosion seconds after it happened. Live at 6 @ABC7 #MapIt pic.twitter.com/XvSuBdeRvx — Jory Rand (@ABC7Jory) February 19, 2015
