No injuries reported after explosion and fire at New Orleans-area refinery
CHALMETTE, Louisiana — No injuries were reported Friday after an explosion and fire at a New Orleans area refinery, officials said.
Residents near Chalmette Refining reported hearing an explosion around 1 p.m. The refinery is in Chalmette, located about 10 miles east of New Orleans.
Chalmette Refining said in a social media post that a fire broke out in an operational unit. The St. Bernard Fire Department worked with refinery personnel to bring the fire under control.
“Everyone working in the area is safe and accounted for,” the company said. “The cause of the incident will be investigated.”
St. Bernard Parish officials said in a social media post that emergency response teams remained on site to monitor the situation and that the refinery had informed them that “no toxic chemicals had impacted air quality.”
The refinery is owned by New Jersey-based PBF Energy, which did not immediately respond to a phone call or emails requesting additional information about what damage the fire may have caused to the facility.
The refinery, built in 1915, produces approximately 189,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It also produces specialty chemicals and has 500 employees and 200 subcontractors.
PBF Energy did not immediately respond to an email about whether the fire would impact production at the refinery.
The refinery’s daily output represents about 1% of the oil used daily in the United States, said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation at the University of Houston.
This loss of production while the cause of the fire is under investigation – combined with the oil shortage due to the war with Iran – will drive up prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel in the south and south-central part of the country, Krishnamoorti said.
“Some of the reasons gasoline prices have remained so high and continue to grow are because crude prices are high, but also refinery outages, which will only make the problem worse,” Krishnamoorti said.
