Refinery fire shuts key source of YVR fuel
Official says BP is drawing upon its inventory to meet the needs of the airport
Friday’s fire at BP PLC’S Cherry Point refinery in Washington state hasn’t yet created any fuel delivery problems at Vancouver International Airport, an official said Monday.
“They produce 60 per cent of the fuel used at YVR,” said Adrian Pollard, project director of Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corporation. “We understand the situation isn’t that serious, although it speaks to the [ importance] of diversifying our supply.”
Pollard said BP is now drawing on a fair amount of inventory. “I don’t know how much they have, but it’s enough that they’re not in panic mode at BP in terms of their deliveries. It should keep us going for several days, if not a week or two.”
The investigation into the fire may last several more days after the Londonbased company halted fuel production at the 234,000- barrel- a- day refinery, which provides about 20 per cent of the gasoline market share in Washington and Oregon and most of the fuel for airports in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, according to the BP website.
However, Pollard said YVR continues to receive fuel from both BP and Chevron, the airport’s other supplier, and that BP would look at shipping fuel from elsewhere if the need arises.
“The fuel has to come from somewhere, so it would come by ship or barge offshore.”
Vacuum resid, a heavy byproduct of the distillation process, caught fire at a flange between a vacuum heater and vacuum tower of the refinery’s crude unit, according to a filing with the National Response Center.
“It’s conceivable, though not planned, that we might be able to start some of the downstream units at some time in the future, even without part of the vacuum unit,” plant spokesman Bill Kidd said. “All of this has to be conditioned on the inspection and how much damage and what part of the rest of the crude unit we can use, if any.”
The Seattle- Tacoma International Airport hasn’t been affected by the refinery’s shutdown and typically has between seven and 11 days of fuel supplies on hand, Perry Cooper, a spokesman for the airport, said.