Torrance Refinery

Recent Developments

[New!] 2010 Pegasus Awards

The 2010-2011 Pegasus application (see under recent refinery information) is now online! This year’s program will have a new and exclusive focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) projects for elementary, middle and high school levels.

To learn more, join Torrance Unified School District’s Resource Teacher, Margaret Esfahani, for a Pegasus Writing Session on September 1st, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Education Materials Building.

ExxonMobil Green Team Program

Green Team is a summer employment program that also provides academic enrichment for Torrance youth. The program, now in its 16th year, is a partnership between ExxonMobil, the Torrance Unified School District and the City of Torrance. Learn more about one Torrance student’s unique experience.

Shelter in Place

If your children attend the Torrance Unified School District, chances are you understand how to Shelter in Place. Your kids do! The initial decisions you make and how you respond during an emergency is critical. Be prepared.

About the Torrance Refinery

Serving Customers in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada for over 80 years
The year was 1929.  The city of Torrance had only been incorporated for nine years when an oil refinery sprouted from acres of bean fields.  

Tracing its beginnings from a Scottish sea captain named John Barneson, the facility was built in response to the mariner's vision of fueling ships in the Los Angeles harbor with recently discovered crude oil from California's San Joaquin Valley. Pipelines soon followed and during the Great Depression the refinery, then known as the General Petroleum Corporation, processed up to 30,000 barrels of crude oil daily lending a much-needed boost to the local economy.

Today, the ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery processes more than five times this amount by using the most up-to-date technologies to produce the highest quality gasoline, aviation fuels and other materials to keep California and the West "on the move."

Harvesting California's Black Gold
The refinery's crude oil supply still comes primarily from the San Joaquin Valley. ExxonMobil's M-70 pipeline, one of the country's most advanced, carries some of the heaviest crude oil in the world from Central California to the refinery. More than 70 percent of each barrel is refined into high quality, specially formulated low emissions gasoline and sold in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Other products of the Torrance refining process include jet fuel, diesel fuel, liquefied petroleum gases (LPG), coke and sulfur.

Torrance Refinery at a Glance...

• Employs nearly 800 people
• Covers 750 acres
• Processes an average of 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day
• Produces 1.8 billion gallons of gasoline per year
• Produces nearly 10 percent of the gasoline that is refined in California, most of which is sold in Southern California.
• Provides jet fuel to Los Angeles International Airport via pipeline
• Other products of the refining process include liquefied petroleum gases, diesel fuel, petroleum coke and sulfur