The refinery dates to Pennsylvania’s19th-century oil boom and Ii less than a mile from residential areas of South Philadelphia. Cit) emergency responders reported a vat of butane had exploded on site shortly after 4 am on Friday, but reported no injuries. The company did not respond to requests for comment. Local television said a series of large explosions shook buildings, far away as southern New Jersey, across the Delaware River. The NBC broadcast affiliate said thick plumes of smoke were covering large parts of “center city and South Philadelphia”.
The river basin between Pennsylvania and New Jersey is the main oil refining center on the US east coast and an important market crude oil produced abroad. The Philadelphia refinery, which is can process as much as 335,000 barrels of oil a day, imports large amounts of crude from the North Sea and West African suppliers, including Norway, the UK, and Nigeria, government data show.
PES previously spent $13om to build a railway yard to unload oil trains from the Bakken oil formation in North Dakota, but shipments from the Midwest to the east coast have fallen after new pipelines made it cheaper to send barrels to competing for refineries the central US.
The refineries in the greater Philadelphia region – including PEE PBF Energy’s Paulsboro, New Jersey plant and the Trainer refine owned by a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines – supply large eastern gasoline, diesel and jet fuel markets including Philadelphia, Washington, and New York City.