At Chevron’s refinery in Los Angeles, a huge fire breaks out in the jet fuel unit.

Los Angeles – (Special Correspondent / Web Desk) – Chevron’s tab El Segundo refinery near Los Angeles experienced a massive fire in a jet fuel production unit Thursday night, resulting in large flames and billowing smoke from one of the biggest refineries on the US West Coast.
Allison Cook, a spokesman for Chevron, said in an emailed statement that all employees at the refinery had been accounted for and that no injuries had been reported.
The cause of the explosion at the facility that supplies jet fuel to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in the El Segundo suburb was not immediately known. By early Friday, the refinery was contained, according to local media.
According to the two sources, the refinery’s Isomax 7 unit, which turns mid-distillate fuel oil into jet fuel, was where the fire started.

It was unclear what effect the fire would have on the refinery’s ability to produce jet fuel.

Isomax 7 produces jet fuel along with the refinery’s two crude distillation units for LAX airport, located just north of the refinery.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, “There is no known impact to LAX at this time.”

US WTI crude futures prices were trading 46 cents higher on Friday at $60.94 per barrel as of 0826 GMT, but were heading for a greater-than 7% loss on the week. The fire is unlikely to have a large impact on the wider oil market, two analysts told Reuters, but could cause a rise in gasoline prices in California.

The El Segundo refinery is Chevron’s second biggest refinery in the United States and produces about 40% of southern California’s jet fuel and 20% of its gasoline.

The blaze continued to burn after midnight at the refinery, Cook said.

“Chevron fire department personnel, including emergency responders from the cities of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach are actively responding to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo Refinery,” Cook said. “All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries.”

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Local officials said no evacuation orders were issued for nearby residents, some of whom live in apartment buildings across the street from the refinery.

Residents in Manhattan Beach, located southwest of the refinery, were told to shelter-in-place until 2 a.m.

Los Angeles residents posted numerous videos online of the fire saying they were stunned by the noise of the explosion. A University of California-San Diego camera captured video of the explosion shortly after 9:30pm PDT (0430 GMT).

The fireball when the fire erupted turned the sky orange in the western Los Angeles area as did the refinery’s safety flare, which was set off due to the blaze.

Safety flares, which emit a tall plume of flame, are used when refineries cannot process hydrocarbons normally.

In addition to Chevron, state and federal safety agencies will probe the fire after the blaze is extinguished, they said.

In December 2022, there was an isolated fire inside the refinery but it was quickly extinguished.

The refinery’s total storage capacity is 12.5 million barrels in about 150 major tanks. The sources said they were not sure how much jet fuel the refinery currently had in storage.