Maine energy officials say they don’t expect any broad supply interruptions with heating oil, gasoline or diesel fuel as a result of Monday’s fire and explosion at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Angela Monroe, who heads the Governor’s Energy Office, said she spoke Wednesday with Irving representatives who said the refinery was performing scheduled maintenance at the time, and that they had established contingency plans to replace the supplies that would be unavailable as a result of the explosion.

“Although we do know that Maine receives significant amounts of its gasoline, diesel, and home heating oil from this facility,” Monroe said, “we are still working to quantify those amounts and will provide additional information when it is available.”

The Canadian facility is the largest supplier of Maine’s gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil, so officials have been monitoring events to see if the damage would have had any impact on supply or price.

In a statement Tuesday, Irving Oil said the refinery is safe, the specific site was contained and it was making plans to restart operations. It had not issued a further update as Wednesday evening.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Irving was trying to determine the exact cause of the explosion. The company said it likely involved a malfunction in a diesel-treating unit, which removes sulfur.

Irving’s Saint John refinery produces 320,000 barrels a day of gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel, exporting half of it to the Northeast through terminals that include Searsport, Portland and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.


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