Chevron reports flaring at Los Angeles refinery

Chevron Corp said an undisclosed malfunction on Tuesday at its 279,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Los Angeles-area refinery in El Segundo, California, would not prevent it from supplying its customers.                                            

The company declined to describe the nature of the malfunction, but told pollution regulators in regulatory filing on Tuesday that a breakdown at the refinery triggered the plant's safety flare system.                                            

West Coast refined products traders attributed a 4-cent jump in wholesale gasoline prices in the Los Angeles market to the breakdown at the Chevron refinery. Several major refiners and brokers were seen buying heavily, common behavior when a major has a breakdown.                                            

The notice did not say which unit or units might be involved in the flaring, which is used to burn off hydrocarbons that cannot be processed normally.