An explosion and massive fire at Chevron's refinery in El Segundo, California on Thursday night will likely lead to a surge in gasoline prices throughout California and in Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon, states that rely on California refineries to varying levels for their own gasoline supplies.
BREAKING: Explosion, Fire at Chevron Refinery in El Segundo. Flames and smoke seen for miles across South Bay. @abc7chriscristi @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/ZjIHXmbFUQ
— Tim Conway Jr Show (@ConwayShow) October 3, 2025
Fortunately, firefighters from Chevron and the cities of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach quickly contained the fire to one section of the refinery, though it has yet to be fully extinguished as of press time, and no injuries have been reported. Some of the workers had a harrowing experience, though, like this man who spoke to ABC7 about his experience:
"Next thing I know, I hear like a big 'WHOOOSH'... it was like wind, but like pressurized wind," he said. "Next thing I know, bro, I see everything in front of me just light up and I see shadows of towers and pieces of equipment and I'm just like 'Oh my god. It's a fire'."
That's when he started running.
"Next thing I know, on my left side, the flare goes off... it's just a big old fire torch, you know what I mean? And I just feel the heat coming on the left side of my face, and I'm just like 'Oh man i got to keep running, I'm already out of breath'."
The refinery provides about 16 percent of the state's crude oil refining capacity, and since the state has an isolated fuel market due to its heavily-regulated unique blends, any amount of refinery offline time will have an immediate impact on gas prices. Chevron's facility also refines jet fuel used at LAX and other airports in the region. At this time, the facility is offline "indefinitely," but we'll have better idea of the timeline once the extent of the damage can be assessed. However, as a point of reference, PBF's Martinez refinery in the Bay Area was offline for 100 days after a February 2025 fire.
$SOC
— TheDailyCompounder (@100xCompounding) October 3, 2025
Given planned refining outages by the beginning of 2026 California was going to be walking a tight rope with just a 6% buffer between refining capacity and daily consumption.
With Chevrons El Segundo out there will be a deficit of roughly 11% between the states needs…
Complicating the current situation, Philipps 66's Wilmington refinery is already in the process of ceasing operations and will be fully shut down before the end of the year. That refinery provided 8 percent of California's crude oil refining capacity in 2024.
If the Chevron El Segundo refinery has to go offline for any amount of time, gas prices in CA, AZ, NV are going to soar.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) October 3, 2025
Another complication: Philipps 66's LA refinery is closing this month - in 2024 it represented 8% of the state's crude oil capacity pic.twitter.com/69MF3KNOKP
And, two refineries in the Bay Area are set to close by the first quarter of 2026. Even without the fire at the El Segundo refinery, legislative leaders in California were warned earlier this year that if planned refinery closures came to pass the state was looking at the possibility of $10 or $12/gallon gasoline prices.
People in Nevada and Arizona will also be looking at higher gas prices because of California's failures; California supplies 88 percent of Nevada's gasoline and 33 percent of Arizona's, according to a June 2025 analysis. So, this is yet another example of how people who didn't vote for Gavin Newsom's sadistic policies are impacted by them.
The cause of this fire hasn't been determined, but the fire at the Martinez refinery was blamed on "inadequate" supervision and training of contract workers performing a routine procedure known as a "turnaround," according to an independent investigation. That inadequate supervision was partly caused by "a 2013 California law that requires refineries to hire many of their contractors from local union halls and ensure they are enrolled in or graduates of approved apprenticeship programs" and the state's co-employment rules, which prevented the refinery "from directly approving contractor safety plans and providing critical safety training to those workers." Further, the report states:
“Past resources that included ‘professional shutdown execution’ personnel from other locations are no longer available for PBF to use on turnarounds. There is no confirmation that contract workers understand the most significant process hazards and simultaneous operation hazards.”
Californians are also looking at higher prices and less availability in the electricity market, as electric utilities are tacking on a $24/month "Base Services Charge" to customer bills due to a new law that restructures how grid maintenance costs are recovered. And, Southern California Edison (SCE), which is being sued for causing the deadly Eaton Fire in Altadena, is warning local governments that Public Safety Power Shutoffs, a program where the utility de-energizes lines proactively in high-risk wildfire areas during wind storms, are going to be greatly expanded this year. SCE's government relations manager, Ian Anderson, told the Simi Valley City Council this week:
“Customers could potentially experience longer and more extensive PSPS events this year, including in areas that have historically not experienced PSPS.
“If you live in a high fire risk area, that’s not going away any time soon. These conditions are going to increase and continue. The company is doing everything it can to harden the grid, but customers also need to take responsibility for preparing themselves.”
The problem is that the best ways to harden the grid are to allow controlled burns and aggressive fuel reduction strategies, and to exempt utility companies from onerous environmental regulations that prevent them from reducing wildfire fuel near their equipment or replacing outdated equipment, such as the creosote-filled wood power poles that were still in use in Pacific Palisades this past January; those poles are responsible for numerous spot fires that destroyed homes during the inferno.
Stars are aligning in California in a very bad way. How long can the state continue to minimally function? Collapse can't be far away.
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