The Bay Area Air Quality Management board is touting a newly inked regulation barring any of the five local refineries from "flaring" fumes unless it is necessary to avoid explosions or major releases of toxic gases.

"The big oil refineries are going to be better neighbors, and there is going to be better health and cleaner air," BAAQM spokeswomen Terry Lee told AFP. "We think it is a win-win all around."

Operators of the area's five refineries help draft the new rule, which formalizes voluntary improvements they have made during the past two years, said Lee.

Chevron, Valero, Tesoro, Shell, and Conoco-Phillips each operate refineries near San Francisco and an analysis by air quality officials pegged the companies' combined annual revenues at 9.8 billion dollars.

Overall annual profit for the companies is 689 million, according to Lee, who estimated it would cost the companies from 1.4 to 10.6 million dollars annually to meet the new flare reduction standard.

"We are certain they will do it in the most cost-effective way they can," Lee said of the petroleum companies.

The regulation stemmed from two years of collaboration between air quality monitors and the refineries, Lee said. It was two years ago that BAAQM required refineries report each incident of "flaring," the burning off of excess gases.

"By shining a light on the refineries, we got a good handle on what we had only previously been able to guess at," Lee said of regulators tracking flaring. "They really stepped up to the plate and looked for ways to reduce emmissions."

Tesoro quadrupled its capacity to compress gases and recycle them into the production process, reducing flaring by 95 percent, Lee said

Reductions in flaring at all the refineries have cut the amount of polluting gases released by six tons, Lee said.

"What this does first and foremost is stop any return to the old ways of excessive flaring," Lee said of the regulation voted into effect Wednesday.

Refineries are also required to annually update flare minimization plans specifying equipment and procedures in place, according to the new rule. The regulation also calls for analysis of emergency flaring events.

"Companies didn't love it, but they signed off on it," Lee said of the new regulation. "This certainly puts it on record that flaring can be reduced, and that it can be done cooperatively."

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