Exxon Evacuates Workers Amid California Wildfire

By Dan Molinski 

Exxon Mobil Corp. said it has evacuated nonessential personnel from its Las Flores Canyon processing plant in southern California as a fast-moving wildfire expanded Thursday.

The so-called Sherpa fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon in the Refugio Canyon area of Santa Barbara county by early Thursday had charred some 1,100 acres and forced the shutdown of parts of Highway 101, according to the county. Exxon's facility is located about 15 miles from the city of Santa Barbara.

"Employees who remain on site are involved in various fire-protection activities," Exxon spokesman Todd Spitler said in an email.

Exxon normally uses the Las Flores Canyon facility to receive crude oil produced from wells offshore Santa Barbara and then send it along by pipeline to refineries in other parts of California. But the rupture last year of an oil pipeline Exxon was using forced it to halt crude production as pipeline repairs continue.

Without any way to transport its crude oil, some 425,000 barrels of crude oil were left stranded in two storage tanks at the Las Canyon Flores facility. But last month Exxon began hauling the crude away in trucks after Santa Barbara county expressed concern about "the risks associated with long-term storage of oil" in the environmentally sensitive region.

Write to Dan Molinski at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 16, 2016 08:06 ET (12:06 GMT)

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