Fire/explosion at 2 U.S. Oil Refineries in 5 days

Fire breaks out after explosion at Oklahoma Oil Refinery 5 days ago

The explosion and subsequent blaze caused one smokestack to collapse, according to a report on local radio station KRMG. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.

Apparently it is a "small" refinery

The company was established by a merger of Holly Corp. and Frontier Oil in 2011. Holly Corp. was ranked number 431 in Fortune magazine's 2010 list of the largest U.S. companies. At the time of their merger, the Holly and Frontier companies totaled 440,000 barrels a day of refining capacity in their five refineries, according to The Wall Street Journal. That represented a relatively small portion of the total American refining capacity, which stood at about 17.6 million barrels a day, according to the newspaper.

Fire shuts down MAJOR oil refinery in Northern California yesterday

A massive fire struck at the core of Chevron's large Richmond, Calif., refinery on Monday, spewing flames and a column of smoke into the air, and threatening a prolonged outage that may increase prices of U.S. gasoline.

The fire had started in the No. 4 crude unit, the only one at the plant, at 6:15 p.m. shortly after a leak was discovered, Chevron said. As the leak grew, workers were evacuated, plant manager Nigel Hearn told journalists at the site. He said some units were still operating, but gave no details.

Shortage of fuel could be expected for the West Coast:

Supply could be affected Any lengthy disruption in production could affect the supply of fuel in the West Coast, particularly gasoline, due to the difficulty in meeting California's super-clean specifications. The region also has few immediate alternative supply sources.

Looks like a HUGE regional price increase of fuel is possible

A Feb. 17 fire at the crude installation units of BP's 225,000-bpd Cherry Point, Wash., refinery led to a three-month shutdown and sent the regional price premium to more than $1 a gallon in some places.

an additional $1 per gallon?

I'm sill thinking this may be a coincidence, with two refineries. BUT, if another refinery burns in the next week or two, I'm definitely going with a theory of sabotage/conspiracy.

reply to post by tinker9917


Just another way for them to keep gas prices high.

reply to post by KnightFire

I was just thinking yesterday morning that the gas price has been stagnant for at least a month. My local gas station price has been $3.69, every day, for at least a month or 6 weeks. Not up or down even 1 cent. VERY ODD.

reply to post by tinker9917


lol! We were down to right under 3, less than 4 weeks back, and are up to roughly $3.30? Changes at different times, in different areas.

Originally posted by CynicalDrivel
reply to post by tinker9917

 

lol! We were down to right under 3, less than 4 weeks back, and are up to roughly $3.30? Changes at different times, in different areas.

We are at $3.89. I haven't seen gas under $3 in over a year now.