Wilmington refinery fire boosts spot gasoline prices

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It might be a good idea to fill up your tank now: An early morning fire in the coking unit of the Tesoro oil refinery in Wilmington pushed wholesale gasoline prices up almost 21 cents a gallon. Analysts said that the three-hour blaze would probably kick retail prices up by at least a nickel in the coming days. The increase might be bigger and last longer, depending on the amount of damage at the facility.

‘Before this fire, California had been overdue for some relief at the pump. The price was about to drop like a rock,’ said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in New Jersey, referring to it as particularly bad timing for California consumers.

A smaller fire at the Chevron refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond also contributed to the wholesale jump, analysts said. Concerns over the magnitude of the fire damage also kicked oil higher during the trading day, but much of that earlier gain was lost. Crude oil futures for November delivery closed up 13 cents at $66.02 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the gap between what California and the rest of the nation pays for a gallon of regular gasoline continued to widen even as prices dropped slightly since Thursday. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in California fell 0.6 cent to $3.131 from the day before. That was more than 60 cents higher than the national average, which declined by 0.9 cent to $2.525, according to the AAA fuel gauge report, which uses a national sampling of credit card receipts gathered by OPIS and Wright Express.

As of this afternoon, Tesoro officials were still assessing the damage.

‘Other units at the refinery are currently operating but at reduced rates,’ the company statement said.

California fuel costs are still higher than they were a month ago. That’s because refineries were processing less gasoline than they were a year ago, leaving supplies tight and subject to big swings if any refinery problems develop.

Tesoro’s Wilmington facility ranks third among the company’s seven refineries in terms of production and is able to produce 97,000 barrels a day when operating at full capacity. Tesoro’s other California refinery, in Martinez, is its biggest, with a capacity of 166,000 barrels a day.

-- Ronald D. White and Nancy Rivera Brooks