By Nicole Jao
NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil brought its 264,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Joliet, Illinois, offline after a power outage occurred on Sunday, the company said on Monday.
The outage occurred at about 3:30 p.m. CT on Sunday and power was restored at around 7:00 p.m., according to a company statement.
The outage triggered the refinery’s safety flare and resulted in a shutdown.
The company said it is assessing the refinery’s status, and the cause of the incident remains under investigation.
Units are being stabilized after the plant-wide shutdown, IIR Energy said in a note, adding the refinery is expected return to normal service by the end of this week.
The Joliet refinery supplies key fuels to consumers in the U.S. Midwest. It can produce about 11 million gallons a day of gasoline and diesel fuel, according to the company website.
The disruption comes amid a tight global fuel market. The Iran war and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries have strained fuel supplies, while strong exports have further tightened domestic inventories.
The U.S. national average price of diesel last week surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time ever. Any prolonged operational disruptions could exacerbate an already tight fuel market, sending prices even higher.
(Reporting by Nicole Jao in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski and Will Dunham)
