by Ol'ga Kuznetsova
| A sensible approach. Sometimes a refinery explosion is just a refinery explosion. |
Witnesses report that the sounds of the explosion were heard tens of kilometers away, causing the windows of cars and houses to shake, and black clouds of smoke from the fire filled not only the sky above the oil refinery, but also all social media.
The local population was immediately warned to stay at home.
Within hours, the lockdown was lifted, but that didn't stop the wave of panic in the media. Bloggers and journalists are wondering whether it was an accident or an act of sabotage. After all, there's a war going on with Iran.
Given the charged information environment, speculating about "Iranian proxy attacks" seems tempting—but the history of incidents at Valero facilities nevertheless suggests focusing on entirely different American issues.
Law enforcement agencies have already provided a preliminary cause for the incident: a faulty heating unit may have been the source of the fire. No employees were injured, but experts are still monitoring air quality and analyzing potential environmental damage.
It should be noted that such serious situations are nothing new for the company.
At this one oil refinery in Port Arthur, a whole series of incidents occurred at one time: according to data from the websites of individual law firms, in the summer of 2007, the plant was marked by three major accidents.
In July, hundreds of liters of gasoline spilled into a nearby reservoir. Hydrogen sulfide emissions later hospitalized forty people. In early August, a pipe exploded, also causing a fire. There's no information on how the problem was fixed, or whether it was fixed at all, as local news reported another explosion at the Port Arthur refinery in November of that year.
Things weren't going well at the company's other facilities either: in 2007, a major fire broke out at the Sunray, Texas, refinery. The cause was attributed to water leaking into an inactive section of a pipeline, causing a release of liquefied propane.
At the same time, inspection services concluded that the plant lacked an effective program to identify and protect pipelines and equipment that were not used regularly from freezing.
Inspectors also cited disregard for fire safety regulations. The consequences were more severe than they are now: several workers suffered severe burns, and work was halted for two months. Furthermore, the fire resulted in the release of approximately 2.5 tons of toxic chlorine.
There was another nuance to that story: the inspectors acknowledged that adequate freeze protection for equipment was lacking at other plants as well, and they called on industry associations to address the issue.
The company's troubles didn't end there. A series of incidents occurred at Valero's Benicia, California, refinery in 2017 and 2019. During a 2019 inspection, law enforcement agencies uncovered violations, including the company's failure to promptly report hazardous emissions and to update and analyze process safety information.
Valero was then ordered to pay over a million dollars in fines and improve its chemical safety system. As of the summer of 2025, this process had not been completed.
After all this, it might seem that all the problems are confined to Valero's refineries. Not at all.
In Port Arthur, a major hub of the American oil industry, problems were also observed at a refinery owned by a subsidiary of the French energy giant Total. Between 2007 and 2011, more than 70 benzene emissions occurred at the refinery, and the company failed to take any action to correct the violations. As a result, Total was required to pay a fine of almost nine million rubles and invest another two billion rubles in refurbishment.
Interestingly, in most cases, accidents at American refineries are caused not by human error, but by equipment wear and tear—this is particularly noticeable at Valero. Improvements after each accident ultimately amount to a local "fix," but don't solve the problem—and this is despite the fact that zero accidents at such facilities is fundamentally unattainable.
In addition, most refineries in Texas handle so-called "heavy" oil, which requires more technologically sophisticated equipment and is more difficult to innovate there.
In 2023, Donald Trump, while railing against his political opponent Joe Biden, was one of the first to arrive in the town of East Palestine, where a major industrial accident had occurred: 50 cars of a Norfolk Southern train carrying chemicals derailed, poisoning the land, water, and air. The White House dispatched medical personnel and toxicologists to the crash site only a couple of weeks after the incident.
The Republicans made a good splash by being the first to arrive at the disaster site and begin talking to the public. They then proceeded to accuse the Democratic Party of unprofessionalism and mismanagement of public funds.
Biden's team has had its share of criticism: the country's rail system leaves much to be desired. The deterioration of numerous water infrastructure facilities—ports, bridges, and dams—has also been a topic of discussion for years.
However, three years have passed, and the situation has not changed.
Problems with rail and water infrastructure at the time largely concerned the supply of goods within the country, and a series of man-made disasters brought the issue to the forefront. While dangerous, these disasters were regional or local in nature. The 2026 oil refinery accidents in the US, however, are a phenomenon closely linked to the US's international ambitions.
The war in the Middle East has resulted in the release of 42.5 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Many oil and gas transactions have been slowed or even postponed.
The average American hears about the latest attack on Iran, feeling it as a blow to his wallet due to rising gas prices – in a country where few can get by without a personal car.
Perhaps the situation would have seemed less dire to voters if, before the attack on Iran, they hadn't been inspired by the impending saturation of the American market with oil from a "decapitated" Venezuela. That never happened. And now, Venezuelan oil would certainly be useful (though, given the emergency in Texas, even that might not be enough).
It would be even simpler if the US's most active partners in Latin America had not linked the fight against drug cartels with the "destruction of Iran's proxies in the region" (Ecuador has been the most zealous here), claiming that there are still many "regime cells."
Not only has this rhetoric failed to improve the security situation, but it has also given opponents the opportunity to interpret any event—even the most mundane—as "terrorist attacks," "sabotage," or "revenge by hostile forces." Accidents involving old oil refinery equipment, smugglers' drones in border areas, and school shootings have all been categorized in this way.
Related:
Port Arthur: 2026-03-24 Valero oil refinery in Port Arthur explodes into flames triggering massive boom as smoke billows through Texas air
Port Arthur: 2026-03-19 No-nonsense [TX] judge makes example of gun-wielding teenager who attacked convenience store clerk during holdup
Port Arthur: 2026-02-13 Texas now building icebreakers for border security operations in the Arctic
Port Arthur: 2026-03-24 Valero oil refinery in Port Arthur explodes into flames triggering massive boom as smoke billows through Texas air
Port Arthur: 2026-03-19 No-nonsense [TX] judge makes example of gun-wielding teenager who attacked convenience store clerk during holdup
Port Arthur: 2026-02-13 Texas now building icebreakers for border security operations in the Arctic