BP said on Friday that power had been restored at its vast refinery in northwestern Indiana after a power outage forced the facility to temporarily close and employees to be evacuated.
BP spokeswoman Christina Audicio said in a statement that power was restored to the refinery on Friday after Thursday’s outage, and that the refinery’s office building and nearby roads had also reopened.
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“Refinery operations are stable,” he said. Audisho, however, did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press asking BP to elaborate on the situation at the refinery, including whether refining had resumed and whether the cause of the outage had been determined. Ta.
BP Whiting Refinery photographed on September 21, 2017 in East Chicago, Indiana. (DroneBase via AP, file)
Audisho said all employees at the refinery, which is located along Lake Michigan about 25 miles southeast of Chicago, was shut down and no injuries were reported.
The city of Whiting announced Thursday that the refinery was flaring the stack in response to the outage “to burn off excess product,” which is a “normal process” in response to such incidents.
Audisho said in a statement on Friday that air monitoring around the refinery continues and “no elevated readings have been recorded.”
Whiting said air monitoring conducted by both BP and Lake County at multiple locations determined there was “no risk to the public.”
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The refinery is the largest in the Midwest and the sixth largest in the nation, processing approximately 440,000 barrels of crude oil each day to produce a variety of liquid fuels and asphalt.
