A Dec. 24 explosion and fire at the tank farm of Exxon Co. U.S.A.'s 455,000 b/d Baton Rouge refinery killed two persons but did not severely damage processing units.
A 1:30 p.m. explosion sparked the fire that engulfed two storage tanks holding a combined 3.6 million gal of heating oil and three tanks holding 882,000 gal of lubricating oil. The blaze was extinguished by 5 a.m. Dec. 25.
Exxon said it did not expect problems meeting its heating oil contract obligations due to the loss of inventory.
The company, however, was unsure when deliveries from the refinery would return to full capacity. It was moving some oil out of inventory from the affected area and some heating oil out of tank farms in North Baton Rouge.
Much of the refinery was still out of service at midweek last week. Utilities and support facilities received some damage. All chemical production was shut down.
There were no estimates on cost of repairs, damages, or downtime last week.
MAXIMUM OPERATIONS
Two days before the accident, Exxon said its refineries at Baton Rouge, Linden, N.J., and Baytown, Tex., were operating at maximum capacity for distillate output throughout December.
As of Dec. 18, Exxon began allowing rack customers to lift daily contract volumes regardless of the volume a customer may have received prior to then. Up to that point, Exxon had been able to supply product to existing customers at more than 30% above pro rata December contract volumes.
Some shortages of less than 24 hr duration occurred, and customers facing longer delays were diverted to other Exxon locations.
At the same time, Exxon said it had been meeting contract volumes for propane and expected to continue doing so despite some temporary shortages.
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