Is ExxonMobil’s sale of its troubled Torrance refinery a simple business move or is the company trying to get out of California to escape allegations and investigations surrounding the February 18 explosion at the refinery that endangered workers and touched off a price spike that cost California consumers $6 billion?
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The Torrance refinery near Los Angeles was operating at no more than 20 percent capacity since the facility was damaged.
PBF Energy Inc.is buying the refinery, along with a lubricants distribution center at Vernon, products terminals at Vernon and Atwood, and associated California pipelines and other logistics assets, including facilities at the Southwest terminal.
“Anything to do with the February explosion remains with Exxon”, Dill said.
ExxonMobil’s 700 employees, including about 600 at the refinery itself, were informed of the sale shortly after 1 p.m.
In August, regulators from Cal/OSHA fined ExxonMobil $566,600 and issued more than a dozen workplace violations for the incident, including a few deemed especially grave because the agency “found that Exxon did not take action to eliminate known hazardous conditions at the refinery and intentionally failed to comply with state safety standards”.
The purchase gives PBF greater geographic diversity, expanding beyond its plants in New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio and Louisiana.
Earlier this month, the refinery leaked modified hydrofluoric acid for at least 15 hours.
PBF says it intends to continue using the chemical in its process.
The Torrance refinery previously accounted for 20 percent of Southern California’s gasoline supply.
PBF Energy, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, is one of the largest independent oil refiners in North America. Those additives boost the price of gas about 40 cents a gallon in California.
Fuel prices on the US west coast have been higher than the rest of the country this year, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
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PBF Energy told NOLA.com it intends to extend offers to all ExxonMobil employees and review the level of contract workers needed to maintain safe operations.
