On Monday, a small earthquake hit operations at two oil refineries in Martinez, California, the companies said to Reuters. Then, firefighters had to battle a blaze in Northern California after two ethanol tanks caught fire.
The tanks were burning at a NuStar Energy facility in Crockett, located south of Vallejo.
Around 9 p.m., officials announced that the fire was contained. Several acres of vegetation near the tanks also caught fire. Those fires have also been contained, said Steve Hill, a Contra Costa County Fire Department spokesman.
No one was injured in the fire, and all personnel are accounted for, NuStar Energy said in a statement.
The two tanks contain about 250,000 gallons of ethanol.
NuStar Energy said the two impacted tanks had less than 1 percent of the tank capacity.
Following the earthquake, Marathon Petroleum Corp. said it was working to return its 161,500-barrel-per-day refinery to normal operations, following the 4.5-magnitude quake centered in nearby Pleasant Hill.
The company confirmed an upset, or malfunction, resulting from the quake but said it did not result in any “known spills or releases” or injuries.
“Marathon Petroleum personnel are working to assess the integrity of equipment to ensure a safe restart and return to normal operations,” the company said in a statement.
Marathon had earlier reported the shutdown of multiple units because of the earthquake in a filing with the state pollution regulator. “No off-site consequences are anticipated,” the filing said.
Nearby, Royal Dutch Shell Plc said some equipment had been temporarily affected at its 156,400-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Martinez, but that operations were now normal.