Feb 17, 2012:

Fire crews extinguished a large blaze at the Cherry Point refinery on Friday afternoon, after huge plumes of smoke and flames several stories high poured out of the largest refinery in Washington state, said owner BP Plc . The fire was in a tower on the south side of the refinery in Ferndale, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Seattle, according to images on local television.

BP spokesman Scott Dean said the refinery, which can process 225,000 barrels of crude oil a day, was still operating after the blaze. BP has not identified which unit was involved in the blaze. BP has accounted for all workers, Dean said. One worker was taken to a local hospital for observation following a minor injury. The fire broke out at about 2:30 p.m. local time (2230 GMT) and was extinguished an hour and a half later, Dean said. The refinery has its own fire crews but requested the aid of surrounding fire departments, including Whatcom County Fire District 7 in Ferndale.

Wholesale gasoline differentials jumped 7.5 cents in the Los Angeles market on news of the BP fire, traders said. March-delivery California gasoline sold at 22 cents a gallon over the price for April NYMEX RBOB gasoline. Washington's workplace safety regulator, the Department of Labor & Industries had dispatched two inspectors to the refinery to begin a probe of the fire and its cause.

"One of the things we'll be looking at is did their firefighters respond correctly to the fire," said Hector Castro, department spokesman. In 2010, Labor & Industries issued 12 citations for serious violations in the safe management of processes involving highly hazardous chemicals at the hydrocracking unit. Castro said he didn't know if that was the unit involved in Friday's blaze. BP did not appeal the citations, corrected the problems and paid $69,200 in fines. BP's Texas City, Texas, refinery was the site of one of the worst refinery disasters in the past decade when 15 workers were killed in a 2005 blast.

A federal investigation found extensive failures in the process safety management at the refinery. BP also launched an independent probe of safety at its U.S. refineries and found problems at all five. BP has been praised by the United Steelworkers union, which represents most U.S. refinery workers, for the company's efforts to improve safety at its refineries since the Texas City blast. In Washington state, the most recent refinery explosion was a deadly blast in April 2010 at Tesoro Corp's Anacortes, Washington, refinery that claimed the lives of seven workers.

By Reuters