Petro Star Extinguishes Fire at Valdez Refinery
2009-01-08 23:05:00 -
Petro Star Incorporated (PSI), a subsidiary of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), reported that a fire was extinguished at its Valdez refinery during the midnight hours of Monday, December 29, 2008. There were no injuries to employees or responders.
At approximately 10:43 p.m. on December 28, 2008, an employee of PSI's Valdez refinery made a 911 emergency call to the Valdez Police Department reporting that there was a fire at the refinery's facility. The Valdez Fire Department along with the Alyeska and Petro Star fire brigades extinguished the blaze within two hours. The fire damaged portions of the processing facility and associated piping. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, however no foul play is suspected at this time. Senior executives from the PSI office in Anchorage traveled to Valdez to assess the situation.
Petro Star has a good OSHA safety record, and has no loss-time accidents since 2005.
PSI is conducting an incident review as required by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) through a third party consultant. Supply options for and impact on PSI's customer base are being assessed, and the time frame to return to normal operations has yet to be determined. The facility currently has fuel supply in its storage tanks. PSI supplies less than 10% of the demand at Ted Stevens International Airport, and Elmendorf Air Force Base has another supply option for fuel.
PSI owns and operates a second refinery in North Pole, Alaska just outside of Fairbanks. Because of EPA restrictions, the North Pole refinery is limited in the amounts of diesel and heating oil it can produce and as a result has been trucking large volumes of fuel up from its Valdez plant. Company officials plan to seek Federal relief to lift those limitations so the North Pole refinery can meet more of the fuel needs of interior Alaska. The current cap at the North Pole refinery is 45 million gallons per year.
The Petro Star Valdez refinery has been in operation since 1993, and the facility draws approximately 48,000 barrels per day, produces approximately 13,000 barrels of product and returns the remaining residual to the pipeline. Of the products produced, approximately 9,300 barrels per day is jet fuel, 3,200 barrels per day is diesel and 300 barrels per day is LSR, a fuel used to generate electricity by the local utility.
Arctic Slope Regional Corporation
Vice President of External Affairs and Communications
Tara Sweeney, 907-317-9580
