California's Vanishing Refinery Network
In 1983, California had 40 operating refineries. By 2025 it had 13 — and that number is falling. Drag the timeline below to watch them disappear, one by one, over 46 years.
Every closure increases California's dependence on imported refined fuels arriving by ocean tanker — with no pipeline alternative. Source: California Energy Commission, Jan 2026.
California's refinery closures are the product of five converging pressures — not any single cause. Aging infrastructure, California-specific regulatory costs, the fracking-era drop in light sweet crude prices, declining in-state oil production, and long-term demand signals from EV policy have combined to make California one of the most expensive places in the world to refine crude oil.
From 1985 to 1995 alone, 10 California refineries closed — a 20% capacity reduction in a single decade. That wave was driven primarily by the economic pressure of CARB reformulated gasoline requirements. The current wave, beginning with the Shell Carson conversion in 1992 and accelerating dramatically since 2020, is driven by a fundamentally different calculus: whether to invest in 50-to-100-year-old equipment to serve a market that state policy intends to eliminate.
California produces a uniquely formulated gasoline blend — CARBOB (California Reformulated Gasoline Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending) — required to meet the state's air quality standards under authority granted by the 1970 federal Clean Air Act. The California Legislature's Joint Oversight Hearing on Transportation Fuels (August 20, 2025) described California's gasoline market as "geographically and functionally isolated from other U.S. markets, with limited ability to import finished gasoline." When a refinery closes, there is no domestic pipeline to draw on. The California Energy Commission confirmed in its June 27, 2025 letter to Governor Newsom that any resulting supply shortfall "must be made up through marine imports of refined product." The CEC's own gasoline and diesel market update (June 2026) notes that California has been a net marine importer of gasoline since the late 2010s.
The consequences are already in effect. The CEC's Oil Refinery History (January 2026) records that Phillips 66 ceased operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery in October 2025 and that Valero's Benicia refinery ceased operations in April 2026. The CEC's Transportation Fuels Assessment (August 2024) projected that with these two closures, in-state CARBOB production would fall below California demand. Governor Newsom directed the CEC in April 2025 to "ensure that Californians continue to have access to a safe, affordable, and reliable supply of transportation fuels." The Legislature responded with Senate Bill 237 (signed September 2025), which authorized the Governor to temporarily suspend seasonal gasoline blend requirements during supply emergencies. Every barrel of fuel no longer refined in California must now arrive by ocean tanker — with no pipeline alternative available.
Sources (government only): California Energy Commission — Oil Refinery History (Jan 2026) · CEC Transportation Fuels Assessment (Aug 2024) · CEC Vice Chair Gunda letter to Governor Newsom (June 27, 2025) · California Legislature Joint Oversight Hearing on Transportation Fuels (Aug 20, 2025) · CEC/DPMO — California Gasoline & Diesel Market Update (June 2026) · Governor Newsom letter to CEC (Apr 21, 2025) — gov.ca.gov · Senate Bill 237 (Sept 2025) · CARB — Low Carbon Fuel Standard & CARBOB definition — arb.ca.gov