Explosion, fire at Irving Oil refinery

Irving Oil confirmed a "major incident" today at its 300,000 b/d refinery in St John, New Brunswick.

Local residents posted pictures of flames and thick black smoke from the facility at about 9:20am ET. It was not immediately clear whether the fire was under control.

Irving supplies fuels to the US northeast as well as to eastern Canada. The company's US terminals in Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, and Rhode Island received an average 111,000 b/d of gasoline blends in the first half of the year, and 51,000 b/d of distillates, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data.