ExxonMobil Corp. on Thursday extinguished a fire at its Baytown, Texas, refinery that left four injured and lifted gasoline futures prices.
“ExxonMobil emergency response teams have safely extinguished the fire that occurred at our Baytown Refinery earlier this morning,” the company said in an emailed statement. Four people were injured and are receiving medical treatment; all four individuals are in stable condition, ExxonMobil said, while all other personnel have been accounted for.
The company
XOM,
+0.50%
said air monitoring continues along the refinery fence line, with available information showing “no adverse air-quality monitoring impact to the community or personnel at this time.”
Baytown is the fourth largest refinery in the U.S. with a capacity of 561,000 barrels a day.
The closure of a refinery of that size would be equal to around a 3% hit to crude oil demand, versus the Energy Information Administration’s estimated refinery run rate that stands at 89.6%, noted Robert Yawger, executive director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities, in a note.
January gasoline futures
RB00,
+1.08%
RBF22,
+1.08%
rose 0.9% to $2.187 a gallon after trading as high as $2.209, its highest intraday level since Nov. 26. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery
CLG22,
+0.54%
was up 0.4% at $73.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
ExxonMobil shares were up 0.5%.
