Valero suffers refinery fire in Caribbean

Valero Energy Corp. officials experienced a fire Friday in the company’s Aruba refinery in the Caribbean. As a result, the entire refinery has been shut down.

The fire began in a vacuum tower of the refinery at around 9:45 a.m. Central time and firefighters in Aruba extinguished the fire at 11:15 a.m. One Valero employee was treated for heat exhaustion, but no injuries were reported. All non-essential personnel have been sent home. The refinery employs 775 individuals.


As of Friday afternoon, Valero workers have only begun assessing the impact of this incident. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Valero spokesman Bill Day says it is too early to give a timetable as to how long the refinery units will remain down. The 275,000 barrel-per-day refinery has the ability of running independently of the vacuum tower.

San Antonio Business Journal