Fire crews were called out following a blast at a Valero-operated refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, for what was described as a “localized fire” around 5:55 am Thursday morning, according to local news reports.
The KRIS 6 News channel showed footage of flames shooting into the air after local residents reported an explosion that could be heard for miles around.
The City of Corpus Christi sent out a ‘Reverse Alert’ just after 7:00 a.m. confirming a localized fire at the Valero East Plant.
"At this time, there are no off-site impacts and no community action is necessary. More information will be released as available," stated the Reverse Alert.
The refinery, also referred to as the Bill Greehey Refinery East Plant, has a production capacity of around 115,000 barrels per day with a capability of processing heavy, high-sulfur crude oil into light products, asphalt and petroleum coke.
Valero’s website details the Bill Greehey Refineries East and West plants as located in Corpus Christi on the Texas Gulf Coast along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, adding the East refinery processes sour crude oil, while the West refinery processes sweet crude oil, sour crude oil and residual fuel oil.
The extent of the damage to the East plant was unknown, while the West Refinery, around 1 mile away, was unaffected.
The company’s website noted: “The refineries' physical locations allow for the transfer of various feedstocks and blending components between them. Other finished products are also distributed by ship and barge across docks and third-party pipelines.”
Total throughput capacity of the two plants is around 300,000 bpd.
Feedstocks are delivered by tanker and barge via deepwater docking facilities along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, and West Texas or South Texas crude oil is delivered via pipelines.
