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Thnking on it, this could well work to Newsome's advantage, giving him an "out" for his terrible policies.

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Too early to identify a root cause for the fire, but if it ultimately points to arson then the next question would be the politics behind the act. Could see it being some environmental activist useful idiot type that inadvertently provides Newsome cover as you suggested.

Couple of things...
This refinery first opened in 1911. Now I have no way of knowing if ANY part of that plant is original (very likely nothing there is that old) but it certainly points to the notion that the facility is likely a mix-and-match of additions, expansions, and upgrades over the decades.

Was Chevron already looking for a buyer for this facility? I know Philips was, so I might be getting these confused. I know Chevron was looking to move their corporate HQ to Houston, can't recall if this refinery was part of that.

Either way, especially given California's extraordinarily stringent regulatory environment, my guess is there is a near ZERO chance this facility is repaired/rebuilt and returns to service.

Chevron had no plans to cease operations of the El Segundo refinery. Depending on the amount of damage and capital required to repair it, this might change.

I'd be shocked if it impacts the planned P66 or Valero closures. When the real estate is more valuable than a decade+ of operating profits, staying open doesn't make sense.

I imagine it is the usual regulatory slow smothering: all new regulations have very high compliance costs for new facilities or major upgrades but grandfather older facilities to lessen the immediate impact. After a few of these, old facilities eventually become impossible to operate profitably and close, often without any feasible profitable replacement on the market, so production moves elsewhere and that adds transportation and other costs to all product.

I know that Newsome has been pressing the oil companies to keep the refineries open, so far, he has not received a warm response.

Phillips 66 & Valero are closing refineries in a few months.

But, California uses the same blend that Singapore users, so they can import from there. I'm sure that will help consumers.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/california-wants-to-halt-oil-industry-exodus-after-years-of-climate-focus-e5da733e?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAgzRRPRm4z266x5oVrtjS_ay_KJTOK5o0tjd3UVQyC9AQFOnOZWAA7Z6awszdw%3D&gaa_ts=68dfbe6e&gaa_sig=MaES7hcCqGTFGgvsjs0jSEt2BhVEgM1cD62dzo3fQ8qlVBKbEMHboj7DQ6HM8fSh0VauKpDDjq-i8QkdLlKkbg%3D%3D

You can get a truck load of gasoline/diesel delivered from a long way off for way less than 25 cents a gallon.
A trailer truck transport will be around 7,500 gallons iirc.
Finding a refinery to put the extra California required blends in the fuel may be a problem but they will do it if it's profitable.

Same with any product that's short in the US- it can be shipped.

Used to ride my bike right along the strand next to that refinery and worked only a couple miles away, really makes you think.

There currently isn't enough import infrastructure to offset the volume of the upcoming closures. Most likely scenario is offshore lightering operations to smaller vessels due to dock limitations and draft restrictions which create a whole different set of problems.

California is screwed. There are some major investment projects to increase pipeline capacity into AZ and then truck fuel into California. The $8/gal projection is likely real and short term potentially higher.

HumbleAg04 said:

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The above industry average rate of major incidents that keep plaguing California refining is also the fault of the state's policies.

Glad everyone is ok.

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Please elaborate.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Remember that California already is trying to phase out internal combustion engines and force everyone into EVs.

This only helps accelerate their plan.

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And they will probably push for price controls instead of just easing up their blend regulations to have affordable gas like the rest of the country

Doesn't California impose strict regulations on trucks from out of state?

They truly are dumbasses, some of their octane mandates are dumber than dumb. They are the only state that I know of that requires the refiners to use the component "octane" in their gasoline at a certain percentage. You make synthetic octane by reacting olefins together then hydrotreating them, much more expensive than your run of the mill alkylate, reformates, aromatics (toluene, xylenes, etc) to boost your octane to 87+ - Anyway just stupid uncalled for regulations on gasoline. Valero in Corpus is one of the big producers of synthetic octene / octanes which ship that stuff all the way to California - so dumb when those refiners out there can make their own octane enhancers . There was also an octene plant in Canada shipping all the way to California- truly stupid uncalled for cost when every single refiner out there could just make their own product

Could someone post a simple layman's explanation of what goes into a special blend for the kali market and why that's so difficult to implement at a currently operational refinery? Not trying to derail but have never understood why kali gasoline is significantly different than Texas or any other states gasoline.


ETA - or maybe I should just read the post just above this one lol

bmks270 said:

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HumbleAg04 said:

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The above industry average rate of major incidents that keep plaguing California refining is also the fault of the state's policies.

Glad everyone is ok.

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Please elaborate.

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Think of it as owning a car with 200,000 miles and scraping by paycheck to paycheck. You can't afford preemptive maintenance. Tires have bad tread. You get oil changes done infrequently, rattles and clunks all over. Then the state makes you install a new catalytic converter made out of platinum that decreases emissions by 0.002% that costs $5k but doesn't make your car more reliable.

This isn't to say the facilities are dangerous or poorly operated or maintained, just a reality.

My thought is that California is just so corrupt on so many levels that' it built into everything they do. If you started out manipulating voting then from their the corruption just breeds itself in all types of areas. The gsoline / fuels / refining issue is just one example. They use regulation to advance someone's cause and then it eventually gets them in trouble, the gasoline / refining situation will bite them in the ass - just as those electricity issues will eventually- shipping power across state lines from Arizona is another stupid thing they do because they over regulated existing and new power plants to fill someone's pockets

It would be nice to see that state hit rock bottom and eventually fix all this stuff- it has to be corruption- none of what they are doing makes any sense

That refinery supplies most of the jet fuel to LAX. Could be much worse ramification depending on the damage.

fullback44 said:

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My thought is that California is just so corrupt on so many levels that' it built into everything they do. If you started out manipulating voting then from their the corruption just breeds itself in all types of areas. The gsoline / fuels / refining issue is just one example. They use regulation to advance someone's cause and then it eventually gets them in trouble, the gasoline / refining situation will bite them in the ass - just as those electricity issues will eventually- shipping power across state lines from Arizona is another stupid thing they do because they over regulated power to fill someone's pockets

It would be nice to see that state hit rock bottom and eventually fix all this stuff- it has to be corruption- none in f what they are doing makes any sense

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Yep. I've worked for three different manufacturing companies in two different industries over 34 years that had facilities in California, and they all had one thing in common... CA's ridiculous regulations increase costs for businesses to the point that they ultimately shut down their plants in CA. If there were enough customers left to justify it economically, we shipped product to them from other states and let the CA customers eat the extra freight and inventory costs.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Doesn't California impose strict regulations on trucks from out of state?

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Not at all if an illegal is doing the driving.

However, they will surely need to make exceptions on the blend formula and truck regulation bs if high prices are a problem for the new, fuzzy foreigner immigrants they love so much…

BigOil said:

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That refinery supplies most of the jet fuel to LAX. Could be much worse ramification depending on the damage.

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Yep. Short term LAX will be in a fuel crisis. Wonder what their inventory situation looks like.

Nancy and her nephew have destroyed that state.

HumbleAg04 said:

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BigOil said:

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That refinery supplies most of the jet fuel to LAX. Could be much worse ramification depending on the damage.

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Yep. Short term LAX will be in a fuel crisis. Wonder what their inventory situation looks like.

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I really dont see an LAX av gas fuel problem just because if you really absolutely had too, you could truck it in from other places until you lined up ships/barges/rail from other refineries. There is simply too many sources for that type of product, although it may cost them ALOT more money to truck in that much fuel, but its something even a small logistics company could put together fairly easily. sure it could possibly cause a mess on the freeway bringing in that many trucks, however most likely, trucks would go to an off-site terminal to off-load and then the av gas would get pipelined in the way it probably gets there now... hell most likely av gas fuel would be brought to the tanks at the refinery that is currently down and sent to LAX the way it goes now.

EMY92 said:

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I know that Newsome has been pressing the oil companies to keep the refineries open, so far, he has not received a warm response.

Phillips 66 & Valero are closing refineries in a few months.

But, California uses the same blend that Singapore users, so they can import from there. I'm sure that will help consumers.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/california-wants-to-halt-oil-industry-exodus-after-years-of-climate-focus-e5da733e?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAgzRRPRm4z266x5oVrtjS_ay_KJTOK5o0tjd3UVQyC9AQFOnOZWAA7Z6awszdw%3D&gaa_ts=68dfbe6e&gaa_sig=MaES7hcCqGTFGgvsjs0jSEt2BhVEgM1cD62dzo3fQ8qlVBKbEMHboj7DQ6HM8fSh0VauKpDDjq-i8QkdLlKkbg%3D%3D

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Philips is closing this month. It's a done deal. Valero is closing in April. It's possible it might not close.

They have now approved 2000 drilling permits in Kern county, but the experts are not convinced the oil companies will pursue them.