PHOTO CREDIT: Draft Environmental Report
Phillips 66 is closing its refinery on the Nipomo Mesa. The oil company announcing yesterday it plans to close the Nipomo facility in 2023. No word what will happen to 110 employees who work there.
Oil pipe lines associated with the plant will be phased out. The company is also transforming its refinery in the east bay area near Vallejo. That will become the world’s largest renewable fuels plant. It will make fuels from cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oils.
Right now, the Santa Maria refinery in Nipomo supplies that plant in the east bay with oil via a 200-mile pipeline. The refinery in the Nipomo Mesa employees about 110 full-time staff, and between 40-50 contractors.
The Santa Maria refinery has been operating for nearly 60 years at its site on the Nipomo Mesa. It processes about 44 thousand barrels of crude oil per day.
