Chevron Refinery Fire West Coast Gas Prices Soar In Wake of Shutdown

Chevron Refinery Fire West Coast Gas Prices Soar In Wake of Shutdown The Richmond refinery as crews attempt to squelch the fire, courtsey of MSNBC.com This cataclysmic image was seen by residents of the Richmond area, a suburb of San Francisco, after the horrendous explosion and subsequent Chevron refinery fire that  sent plumes of smoke over the area. The fire erupted Monday evening in the massive refinery until it was put out early Tuesday, but the entire west coast of the United States will feel the effects of this catastrophe for weeks, if not months, in their wallets. Huffington Post San Francisco has been covering this story very closely, and according to their reports,  they got chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service Tom Kloza to comment about how the  Richmond Chevron refinery is particularly big and important to the West Coast market,    produc[ing] about 150,000 barrels of gasoline a day â€" 16 percent of the regions daily gasoline consumption of 963,000 barrels. The potential for this disaster to be worse than the BP Oil Spill is limited, as fire crews have already subdued the blaze. However, thousands of residents that live within very close proximity to the refinery are complaining about health problems. Lawsuits will definitely be on the horizon and Chevron could be on the hook for millions of dollars if it is found that a lack of oversight caused the explosion. The official statement from Chevron was released through the San Franicisco Gate newspaper, and you can follow all of Chevrons updates at their website:  http://richmond.chevron.com/home/news/incidentresponse.aspx. The Gate newspaper reported that Chevron will not speculate on the cause of this incident. [The] priority right now is containing the fire and protecting the health and safety of our employees and  community. Jason Dearen of the Associated Press explained how West Coast gas prices could skyrocket in result of this loss of oil production.  Already, the  average price of regular gasoline jumped in California from $3.86 a gallon on Tuesday to $3.94 on Thursday. Dearen reports that some experts expect the disruption in production to last for weeks and push prices beyond $4 a gallon. The Richmond refinery makes upwards of 200,000 barrels per day,  accounting  for one-eighth of Californias refining capacity. Shipping to Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Idaho, expect gas prices to bolt upwards in the next few days. Especially with the summer months creating a spike in American mileage, that will put a strain on Americans young and old. Most importantly, as Dearen found out via Rayola Dougher,  a senior economic adviser with the American Petroleum Institute. California has the cleanest burning gas in the nation, so this is definitely a market disruption. Therefore,  California can’t replace those supplies with imports from Washington state, Asia and the Gulf Coast, so it’s more difficult to ease the impact of the lost production. California, already dealing with rolling blackouts due to the excessive heat, are going to have to conserve at unprecedented rates in order to ride this blaze out and not break the bank.