BLAINE, Wash. (AP) — A BP refinery in Washington state that shut down after a February fire has resumed normal operations.
BP spokesman Scott Dean in Chicago said Thursday that repairs and maintenance were completed in May at the Cherry Point refinery near Blaine.
The three-month outage has been cited as one reason that gasoline prices have been higher on the West Coast than the rest of the nation. But other factors also go into the price of gasoline, including increased demand for summer driving.
BP Cherry Point is the third-largest refinery on the West Coast. It produces 20 percent of Washington’s gasoline needs and supplies the majority of jet fuel for Sea-Tac, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia, airports.
The refinery was hit by a fire Feb. 17.
