Las Vegas gas prices primed to spike after massive Chevron refinery fire

Las Vegas Valley gas prices could skyrocket following a large fire at a Southern California oil refinery.

Gas prices could rise between 35 and 95 cents per gallon, due to a Thursday fire and explosion at a Chevron refinery in El Segundo in Los Angeles County, according to Matt McClain, petroleum analyst with GasBuddy. The refinery produces fuel for Chevron, Texaco and Caltex.

With the extent of the damage is unknown, it’s tough to say exactly how high prices could soar, he said.

“They’re literally still spraying water on spots where smoke is still boiling,” McClain told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday morning. “The fire department has not released the scene back to the owners of the refinery. No one truly knows yet the extent of any damage, how extensive it may be, exactly how long it’s going to take to repair.”

So Cal dependence

The Las Vegas Valley is heavily reliant on Southern California for its gas supply, and any ill effects of incidents there have a ripple effect in Southern Nevada.

McClain based his preliminary estimate of price hikes based on data GasBuddy has collected during previous incidents across the country.

“I know that’s a lot, and that’s a large spread; you talk about a 60-cent per gallon difference there,” McClain said. “We’re saying that simply because if Chevron says, ‘Damage is minimal and we only expect to be down for a handful of days’ then we’ll probably see on the lower end. But if it could take months to repair, then that’s a different story.”

If a prolonged outage at the El Segundo plant occurs, then refined gasoline for much of the West Coast will need to be imported from places like Asia, McClain said.

“That’s going to take some time,” McClain said of the potential for importing crude oil. “There’s a large amount of refined product that is suddenly offline and for exactly how long, quite literally no one knows yet.”

The El Segundo refinery, built in 1911, is the largest on the West Coast and produces 276,000 barrels of crude oil daily, according to Chevron’s website.

Everything from jet fuel to diesel and unleaded gasoline is produced at the refinery, McClain said.

Price increases incoming

As of Friday morning, gas prices hadn’t moved much over the last week, with the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the Las Vegas Valley at $3.91 per gallon, according to AAA. That’s up 1 cent over Thursday and over the last week. The price is 8 cents higher than the $3.83 per gallon seen a month ago in Southern Nevada.

Gas prices could begin to increase as soon as Saturday in Southern Nevada and will continue until the damage assessment of the refinery is completed and a timeline to repair any issues caused by the incident is known.

“I think within the next several days, definitely,” McClain said. “It is entirely possible that you may see a slight uptick in prices on the wholesale side and then it takes a handful of days before you start to see that reflective price at the pumps.”

Chevron didn’t offer a timeline to when the refinery could return to operation, saying in a statement that the fire was isolated and noting that no one was injured as result of the incident.

With the projected price increase it is almost certain that the average price of gas in the Las Vegas valley will surpass the $4 mark. That average price hasn’t been seen in Southern Nevada since June 7, 2024, according to GasBuddy.

Don’t panic

Despite the pending increase, McClain warned against panic buying, as that would only add to the problem.

“If you need gas, then get it,” McClain said. “If you don’t need it until tomorrow, then go tomorrow. If you don’t need it until next week, wait until next week. The best thing that you can do is behave like normal. The reason behind that is that the greater amount of pressure that the general population places on the supply, that’s only going to exacerbate the fact that there is a refinery that is currently offline.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.