Conoco says flared gas at wood river refinery in Illinois

ConocoPhillips flared gases at its Wood River oil refinery in Illinois yesterday, according to a filing with state regulators.

More than 200 pounds of sulfur dioxide was estimated to have been released at 9:50 p.m. local time for about 32 minutes, the filing with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency shows. No reason was given for the flaring.

The last flaring event was on Jan. 14, according to a filing at the time. The refinery can process about 381,000 barrels of crude a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Flaring is a safety measure to prevent excessive pressure from building up in processing units that are being shut down or started up.