Valero Responds to Fire at Corpus Christi Refinery

Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) said crews are responding to a fire on Wednesday within its 290,000 barrel-per-day Corpus Christi West refinery in Texas.

"This morning, a fire occurred at Valero's West Plant refinery. There are no injuries," said company spokeswoman Darcy Schroeder in an emailed response to Reuters.

She declined to comment on the impact on operations, or on further details of the fire.

Most of the motor fuels made at the refinery comes from the West Plant. The RBOB Gasoline futures contract was up 3.8% at $2.573 per gallon by 2:08 p.m. EDT (1808 GMT).

The Bill Greehey refinery East and West plants are located along the Corpus Christi ship channel and the East refinery processes sour crude, while the West plant processes sweet and sour crude and residual fuel oil, according to the refinery website.

Community air monitoring indicated there were no offsite concerns, Valero's Schroeder said and the City of Corpus Christi posted on its website.

This is the second fire at an oil refinery in Texas in days, with a blaze on Monday killing one worker and injuring two others at Marathon's Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, about 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Houston, prompting an investigation by state and federal agencies.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese)