An enormous fire erupted an ExxonMobil refinery in Texas on Thursday. The Baytown refinery caught fire, leading to huge black plumes of smoke into the air, visible from downtown Houston.
According to Reuters, the fire erupted at a lube oil hydrotreating unit, which removes sulfur from oil, a 20,000 barrel-per-day section of the refinery that produces diesel fuel. Related: Shocking Photo: Nearly 30 Oil Tankers in Traffic Jam Off Iraqi Coast
The fire was extinguished Thursday afternoon and ExxonMobil stated that no injuries were reported. Exxon also said that the oil refinery’s operations were not disrupted. The Exxon refinery produces 560,500 barrels of refined product per day, enough to rank it as the second largest refinery in the United States.
Almost as soon as the fire in the ExxonMobil refinery was extinguished, we got reports of a fire in a refinery belonging to LyondellBasell Industries. CNBC reported that the fire occured in the coker unit of the refinery that can process over 263.000 barrels per day.
By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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