Chevron to resubmit Richmond refinery upgrade plan

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chevron Corp will resubmit plans for an upgrade of its San Francisco Bay refinery after a California court blocked it about two years ago because of shortcomings in the environmental-impact review.

Chevron will seek to address concerns about pollution. At issue is the Richmond refinery's plan to process heavier grades of crude oil following construction of a more efficient hydrogen plant and equipment improvements to handle higher-sulfur feedstocks.

"It's not about what goes into the refinery, but more importantly, it's what comes out," Mike Coyle, general manager of the refinery, said in a statement released late on Monday.

With capacity to refine more than 240,000 barrels of crude a day, the refinery is the third-largest in California and ranks 21st in the United States.

The $1 billion upgrade, about half-complete, was halted in July 2009 after a state judge agreed with environmentalists that the original environmental impact report was incomplete.

The Richmond City Council asked Chevron in March to submit a revised application for the project.

"We look forward to reviewing it as promptly as possible while ensuring full transparency and welcoming public input," Mayor Gayle McLaughlin was quoted as saying in the statement.

The more than 1,000 jobs involved in the upgrade will be welcome in Richmond, a working-class city where unemployment is currently nearly 17 percent.

Shares of Chevron were up 1 percent at $102.39 in midday trading.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)