PBF Energy has informed the City of the following: 

“We are in the process of temporarily shutting down one of our process units at the Martinez Refinery. The shutdown process will take a few days, during which there will be intermittent flaring to ensure the unit is brought down in a safe and controlled manner, following standard procedures. Importantly, the associated flaring is primarily the clean combustion of treated process gas. All appropriate agencies have been notified.

Following unit shutdown, our employees and contractor partners will safely conduct maintenance work over the next few weeks. Following completion of the work, we will re-start the unit, during which intermittent flaring will occur for a few days until the re-start is complete. The associated flaring with the re-start will again be primarily clean-combusting treated process gas. Prior to unit re-start, we will notify appropriate agencies and issue another community update.

As a reminder, flares are an essential part of a refinery’s integrated, engineered safety systems designed to safely manage excess combustible gases by burning them off efficiently and effectively. You can learn more about flaring on our website: https://martinezrefiningcompany.com/about-flaring/. Also, you are welcome to view real-time air monitoring measurements at our fenceline air monitoring website: http://www.fenceline.org/martinez/.

As always, we have a community inquiry phone number you can call 925-313-3777 or 925-313-3601 during off work hours. Thank you.”