Exxon Mobil says floodwater overwhelmed pump at Joliet, Illinois refinery
XOM•Floodwater incident at Joliet refinery
NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil XOM.N said floodwater overwhelmed a pump at its 275,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Joliet, Illinois, according to a filing on Thursday.
The company said a containment boom had been deployed as part of the cleanup effort.
Exxon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The filing did not say whether the incident was linked to a power outage that occurred on Sunday.
Exxon shut down the refinery after the outage triggered the facility's safety flare.
The refinery flared again on Wednesday, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, who posted about the incident on X.
Refinery's role in Midwest fuel supply
The Joliet refinery is a key fuel supplier to the U.S. Midwest. According to the company's website, it can produce about 11 million gallons per day of gasoline and diesel fuel.
The disruption comes amid a tight global fuel market, with the conflict in the Middle East and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries putting pressure on fuel supplies.
The U.S. national average price of diesel surpassed $6 a gallon last week and continued to rise this week.
