(Adds details on Shell Martinez refinery)
Oct 15 (Reuters) - A small earthquake on Monday night hit
operations at two oil refineries in Martinez, California, the
companies said on Tuesday.
Marathon Petroleum Corp said it was working to
return its 161,500-barrel-per-day refinery to normal operations
following a quake centered in nearby Pleasant Hill, with a
magnitude of 4.5.
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 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.
Energy intelligence service Genscape earlier reported that a
37,000-bpd hydrocracker, 26,000-bpd catalytic reformer,
40,000-bpd hydrotreater, 14,000-bpd alkylation unit and a
hydrogen plant were shut at the plant because of the incident.
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.
There were no major damages or injuries due to the quake in
the Bay Area, local media reported.
A magnitude 4.5 quake is relatively small for
earthquake-prone California, which lies on the San Andreas
Fault.
(Reporting by Sumita Layek and K. Sathya Narayanan in
Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson, Steve Orlofsky and Sandra
Maler)
