Refinery Background Information

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Background

In 2013, the Governor created the Interagency Refinery Task Force (IRTF) with a goal to better coordinate refinery safety and compliance efforts and improve preparedness for future incidents. The IRTF is made up of different state and local agencies including the California Air Resources Board and four air districts (Bay Area AQMD, South Coast AQMD, San Joaquin Valley APCD and San Luis Obispo APCD) that have refineries within their jurisdictions. CARB and the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association (CAPCOA) agreed to assess existing emergency air monitoring capabilities and to identify potential improvements to refinery air monitoring systems in order to support of goals of the task force (Refinery Emergency Air Monitoring Assessment Report: Objective 2, 2019). 

What is a refinery?

  • Petroleum refineries convert crude oil and other liquids into various petroleum products that people use every day, as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Information Administration.
  • The main focus of most refineries is to produce transportation fuels.
  • From a 42-gallon barrel of crude oil, on average, U.S. refineries produce about 20 gallons of motor gasoline, 12 gallons of distillate fuel, which is mostly sold as diesel fuel, and 4 gallons of jet fuel.
  • More than a dozen other petroleum products are produced in refineries. Petroleum refineries produce liquids the petrochemical industry uses to make a variety of chemicals and plastics.
  • Due to refineries running 24/7, they require a large number of employees.
  • A refinery can occupy as much land as several hundred football fields. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2017) 

General Information

General Refinery Monitoring Information