Valero’s Texas City Refinery Hit By Explosion, Fire

An explosion set off a huge fire at Valero Energy Corp’s 225,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Thursday afternoon but the fire was quickly contained, according the City of Texas City Emergency Management office. No injuries were reported and the blaze, which was burning light hydrocarbons, was contained about an hour and a half after it broke out, Texas City Emergency Management said. Sources familiar with plant operations said the explosion at about 5 p.m. (6 p.m. EDT/2200 GMT) was on a 12,000-bpd alkylation unit. It was unclear if other units had been affected. Alkylation units convert refining by-products into high-octane components blended into gasoline.