In this still image taken from a video provided by KBMT, smoke rises near the Valero Port Arthur Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas on March 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP
A release of fluid set off an explosion and ensuing fire that forced the temporary shutdown of Valero Energy Corp’s 380,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, according to a notice the company filed with state pollution regulators on Tuesday (March 24, 2026).
No injuries were reported from the explosion in the 47,000-bpd unit 243 diesel hydrotreater, the people said. No date has been set for restarting the refinery.
“An unforeseeable release of process fluid in Complex 2 resulted in an ignition event and multiple process unit upsets,” Valero said in the notice filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on Tuesday (March 24, 2026) evening.
The refinery outage comes as U.S. consumers contend with rising gasoline and diesel prices because of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil and refined product waterway for Middle East producers, in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli air attacks.
Donta Miller, the chief deputy for the Jefferson County Sheriff, said on Tuesday (March 24, 2026), there was no evidence that the Monday (March 23, 2026) night explosion felt as far as 11 miles (18 km) away was the result of a deliberate act by someone intending to damage the refinery.
Since Monday (March 23, 2026) night, posts online have claimed the Port Arthur refinery explosion was the result of sabotage by either Iranian or Israeli agents.
“No, we’re not investigating it as that,” Mr. Miller said.
Shutting the refinery was seen as necessary to extinguish the fire, the sources said, by cutting off flammable materials feeding the flames. The refinery lost water supply and steam as firefighters battled the blaze. Diesel hydrotreaters use hydrogen to remove sulfur from motor fuels during their production to comply with U.S. environmental rules.
The fire was put out on Tuesday (March 24, 2026), and a shelter-in-place order for west Port Arthur residents issued at about 6:20 p.m. CDT (1120 GMT) on Monday was lifted shortly before 6 a.m. CDT on Tuesday (March 24, 2026).
According to the TCEQ filing, the Valero refinery’s large crude distillation unit, gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker, diesel-producing hydrocracker, cokers, sulfur recovery units, hydrotreaters, reformer and alkylation unit were shut.
Valero’s Port Arthur refinery, the company’s largest, is situated 86 miles (138 km) east of Houston.
Published – March 25, 2026 10:16 am IST
