TEXAS CITY, Texas, Jan 28 (Reuters) – The gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit at Valero Energy Corp.’s 214,000 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery was shut on Sunday afternoon following a fire, a refinery spokesman said.
It was unknown how long the 83,000 bpd cat cracker would be shut, refinery spokesman Fred Newhouse told Reuters.
The Sunday afternoon fire broke out in a pump feeding gasoil to the FCC at about 2:30 p.m. CST (2030 GMT). The cat cracker was operating normally prior to the fire, Newhouse said.
The fire was extinguished by the refinery’s firefighters at about 4 p.m. CST (2200 GMT), he said.
There were no major injuries due to the fire, though one refinery worker suffered a scraped knee and received first aid at the refinery, Newhouse said.
Texas City residents were not told to shelter inside during the fire because winds were blowing heavy black smoke from the blaze out over Galveston Bay, according to Texas City emergency management officials.
Air monitoring was being done to determine the amount of pollution caused by the blaze, Valero spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said in a statement.
Texas City is located 42 miles (67.59 kilometers) south of Houston.
An explosion at the BP Plc refinery across the street from the Valero refinery killed 15 people and injured 170 in 2005.
In addition to the BP and Valero refineries, Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC operates a refinery in Texas City.