A fire broke out Friday afternoon at PBF Energy’s Chalmette refinery outside New Orleans, according to the facility.
Reuters cited people familiar with the incident who said the 190,000-barrel-per-day Chalmette refinery suffered an explosion on Friday afternoon. The explosion can be traced to a reformer heater used to convert refining byproducts into octane-boosting components added to unfinished gasoline to make premium and mid-grade fuel blends.
The 190,000-barrel-per-day refinery is one of the major Gulf Coast refineries because it produces gasoline, distillates, and specialty chemicals, so any sustained outage can impact regional fuel balances, especially gasoline and diesel supply.
“Fence-line monitoring confirms no off-site impacts,” according to the message from the refinery. “Everyone working in the area is safe and accounted for.”
Videos of the incident:
Bloomberg noted that the refinery completed a month-long maintenance program on several units at the end of April.
GasBuddy head analyst Patrick De Haan wrote on X, “Not only are the molecules in the refinery itself under tremendous pressure, but refineries themselves are under tremendous pressure with huge implications as crack spreads soar. Too early to tell what happened here, but certainly doesn’t look good.”
There has been a notable uptick in the number of “refinery fire” news stories, according to Bloomberg data, whether those stories are in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or the U.S.
Latest on refinery fires:
- Moscow Targeted By Over 50 Drones, Country’s 2nd Largest Refinery On Fire
- Fire Erupts At Major Australian Refinery, Amplifying Fuel Shock As “Green” Killed Refining Buffer
- Mexico’s “Energy Sovereignty” Dos Bocas Oil Refinery Hit By Major Fire
- Oil Jumps After Explosion And Massive Fire At One Of The Largest US Oil Refineries
With crude-product supplies tightening worldwide and the Hormuz chokepoint still heavily disrupted, any refinery taken offline is an ominous sign for fuel markets.
Refinery fires are starting to look like “Food Factory Fires” from several years ago.
7 Responses
Just a co incendiary ence of course!
It’s hard not to look at something like this and feel like the whole damn thing is engineered to push a narrative. Every time there’s a refinery explosion, a pipeline ‘accident,’ or some conveniently timed crisis, the government and its alphabet agencies swoop in with the same tired script – fear, instability, and justification for whatever agenda they’re trying to ram through next.
People are sick of being treated like idiots while these agencies play puppet‑master with the economy, the news cycle, and the public’s nerves. It’s the same pattern every time: chaos happens, the government pretends to be shocked, and taxpayers get stuck with the fallout.
Tall trees and lots of rope are the only cure!
When was the last time an Ethanol plant was caught on fire or destroyed by fire.?
I used to drive Semi years ago…this reminds me of the Oil refinery in Chicago. (Exxon/Mobil)
Located on I-55 S. Does (I hope) this refinery have ample protection from Drones, unlike the refinery in Moscow.?
The pattern is very tough to ignore.
Concomitance
Happy chance
Hard to believe at this stage this isn’t deliberate: Between the Middle East conflict/crisis, the Ukrainian destruction of Russian oil tankers and refineries — and now this — PLUS the assasinations of energy scientists…anyone else seeing a pattern?