TORRANCE, Calif. — A Southern California oil refinery unit that was damaged by an explosion was already offline for unplanned maintenance when the fire occurred, industry analysts said Thursday.
The so-called fluid catalytic cracker unit refines gasoline and is critical to producing California-grade fuel. It was down for two days after problems with a recently repaired component within it when another component exploded, the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks the oil industry, said Thursday. The blast caused a fire that shook the neighborhood on Wednesday and rained debris and ash on nearby lawns. Four contractors were taken to the hospital for evaluation for minor injuries.
It’s not uncommon for refineries to take equipment offline for maintenance and most accidents happen as the refineries are going down for work or being brought back online after repairs, said Tom Kloza, global head of energy at the Oil Price Information Service.
The accident could cause gas prices in California to spike 15 to 20 cents per gallon in the coming months but would not have an effect beyond the state, said Kloza. The shutdown of gasoline production at another California plant due to labor unrest will put a further crimp on supply, he said.
It’s still unclear how much damage the fluid catalytic cracking unit sustained or how long it will take to get it back online. Todd Spitler, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, declined to answer questions about why the unit was offline but said an emailed update would be available later Thursday.
The refinery about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles processes an average of 155,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It produces 1.8 billion gallons of gasoline per year, which accounts for about 8.3 percent of the state’s total refining capacity.
Gas prices in California had been inching up even before the blast, which came at a time when refineries in California are shifting their production to summer-grade gasoline.
The unit where the explosion happened is critical to the refinery’s ability to process gasoline and serious damage there “would shut down gasoline production,” said Pavel Molchanov, senior vice president of energy equity research at Raymond James &Associates.
The unit processes 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day — about two-thirds of the daily total for the entire refinery, he said.
The area of the refinery had been offline for two days because the refinery was having problems with a recently repaired component called the alkylation unit, according to a report by the Oil Price Information Service. It wasn’t clear if the recent repairs to the alkylation unit had anything to do with the explosion.
An electrostatic precipitator — a filtration device that removes particulates — exploded within the FCC unit, sparking a fire, said Erika Monterroza, spokeswoman for the state Division of Occupational Safety, which is investigating the blast.
The investigation could take up to six months, she said, and the refinery is prohibited from operating in the FCC unit until the agency deems it is safe.
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