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Fears of petrol shortages across much of
Britain were growing ahead of a walkout tomorrow by workers at one of
the country's largest oil refineries. As staff at the giant Grangemouth
site in central Scotland vowed to press ahead with the two-day strike,
petrol stations north of the border were hit by a surge of motorists
filling up their cars. Elsewhere fuel prices hit new records, with the
average cost of a litre of petrol in the United Kingdom reaching almost
£1.10. (UK Independent)
Some stations were being rationed at £20.00 UK
Oil Shortage in UK Ahead of Strike: 'Stations Running Dry'
related:
British Motorists Told Not to Hoard Fuel; Refinery Strike Feeds Fears
of Rationing
Grangemouth Shut Down Sends Fuel Cost to New High
'Weeks' to Re-Start Refinery Strike Plant
updated April 26, 2008
Robin Pagnamenta and Angela Jameson
UK Times
Petrol stations in Scotland have already started to run dry despite
Government appeals for motorists not to panic-buy ahead of an imminent
strike at Grangemouth, the country's biggest oil refinery stationed
near Edinburgh.
 Photo:
Petrol stations around Edinburgh have already started to run dry as
drivers fill their cars and start to stockpile fuel (Paul Ellis /AFP/
Getty)
Several filling stations in Edinburgh had just two or three pumps
open, with queues two or three cars deep, as customers reportedly
stockpiled fuel by filling up jerry cans before paying.
At least one, the Canonmills service station, was closed, with the
forecourt taped off while a Shell garage on Ferry Road, was only
selling LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) with no petrol or diesel. An
Esso petrol station on Willowbrae Road and a Shell garage on Glasgow
Road were both out of diesel.
Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme
this morning that petrol supplies across the UK should not be a
problem, but he acknowledged that some motorists could be hit by
shortages at certain forecourts.
“I cannot guarantee that every garage forecourt will have petrol at
that precise moment," he said.
"I hope the vast majority of people are sensible about this. They
might have to be patient. People will have to be sensible and
rational."
 Photo:
A man fills up jerry cans at the Esso station on Willowbrae Road in
Edinburgh (Danny Lawson/ PA)
The 48-hour strike at Grangemouth, which is owned by Ineos, the UK
chemicals group, is expected to go-ahead on Sunday as 1,200 workers
prepare to walk out in a dispute over pensions.
Tony Woodley, the general secretary at Unite, the union, addressed
workers at the refinery today "expressing 100 per cent support for the
action they are being forced to take", said a spokesman.
The Forties pipeline system, which pumps crude oil from the North Sea,
is set to shut down tonight.
A spokesman for BP, which operates the pipeline, said that it expected
the pipeline to close before power from Grangemouth was switched off
late on Saturday, ahead of the strike.
Up to 50 North Sea oilfields may have to cease production when the
main Forties system closes down tonight.
The pipeline supplies 700,000 barrels of oil a day, equivalent to 20
per cent of North Sea oil production, and the shutdown will cost the
UK's economy about £50 million a day, including about £25 million a
day in revenues to the Exchequer.
Oil prices have fallen this morning despite continuing supply concerns
in the face of the planned strike at the 200,000 barrel per day
refinery.
Photo: A petrol station in Linlithgow, near Grangemouth, is
rationing customers to a maximum £20 spend (David Moir/ Reuters)
London Brent crude for June delivery was down $1.71 at $112.63.
Ed Meir, an MF Global analyst, said that the strike was potentially
very serious for the industry. “We believe that there will be
tremendous pressure on the two sides to settle," he said.
John Hutton, Business Secretary, told MPs yesterday that fuel stocks
and imports should be sufficient to maintain supplies during the
strike.
Steam and electricity from the Grangemouth refinery are essential to
operations at the nearby Kinneil processing plant, where crude oil
from the Forties pipeline is stabilised by removing sulphur and
extracting gas.
Unless Ineos can supply basic utilities to Kinneil to keep it running,
oil and gas production from the Forties sector of the North Sea is
likely to halt within 24 hours.
Tony Woodley, the general secretary of the Unite union, which
represents Grangemouth workers, has indicated that the strike could
escalate.
Mr Woodley will address a mass meeting of workers at Grangemouth
today.
 Photo:
The fuel stockpiling comes in advance of a strike at the Grangemouth
oil refinery in central Scotland (Andrew Milligan /PA)
He has said that after the two-day strike there will be a pause, but
he said that if the company remained intransigent then an escalation
of the dispute was inevitable.
Unite has indicated that it will begin a work-to-rule after the
dispute, which could cause long-term problems for the 24 hour a day,
seven day a week operation run by Ineos.
“We understand the seriousness of the situation," Mr Woodley said. "It
is extremely serious — that is why Unite has been behaving
responsibly.
"We have made sure the plant and equipment is in a state to start up
extremely quickly and we have made sure there is emergency cover for
the emergency services.”
He has accused Ineos of “going through the motions” during the two
days of peace talks this week at Acas.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3815746.
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Record setting reaches new territory
Wed, April 23, 2008
World braces for the next round
NEW YORK -- Gas and oil prices pushed further into record high
territory yesterday, with retail gas reaching a U.S. national
average of US$3.51 a gallon for the first time and crude nearing
US$120 as the U.S. dollar fell to a new low against the euro.
At the pump, the national average price of a gallon of regular
gas rose 0.8 cent US yesterday to US$3.511, according to a survey
of stations by AAA and the U.S. Oil Price Information Service.
Prices for diesel -- used to transport most food, industrial and
commercial goods -- also rose overnight to a record of US$4.204 a
gallon.
Gas prices are nearly 66 cents US higher than last year, when
they peaked at a then-record of US$3.23 in late May, and have
prompted many analysts to raise their estimates of where gas is
going to go.
"I wouldn't rule out the possibility that we could get to
(US)$4," said Antoine Halff, an analyst at Newedge USA LLC.
Gas prices are rising for many reasons, including oil's record
run. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose to a new trading
record of $119.90 before retreating to settle up $1.89 at a record
$119.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract
expired after the Nymex closed, which contributed to its spike
higher as investors scrambled to square bets. June crude futures,
which now become the focus of trading, rose $1.44 to settle at
$118.07 a barrel, nearly $2 shy of the $120 level.
Many investors see commodities such as oil as a hedge against
inflation and a falling U.S. dollar.
Also, a weaker greenback makes oil cheaper for investors
overseas.
The U.S. dollar fell yesterday after the National Association
of Realtors said sales of existing homes dropped in March while
the median home price declined, raising prospects that the Federal
Reserve will cut interest rates further this year to try to shore
up the ailing economy. Fed interest rate cuts tend to further
weaken the dollar.
Oil also rose on concerns about supply constraints overseas. A
Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture declared what's known as force
majeure on April and May oil delivery contracts from a
400,000-barrel-a-day Nigerian oil field due to a pipeline attack
last week. The move protects the company from litigation if it
fails to deliver on contractual obligations to buyers.
In Mexico, oil production slipped 7.8 per cent in the first
quarter to 2.91 million barrels a day as output at the country's
oil fields waned, state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said.
Husky looks for new opportunities after another year of record
profits
OPEC plans to increase its production
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Explosion at west Texas oil refinery shuts down major
interstate; 5 people injured Feb. 18, 2008
BIG SPRING, Texas:
A thunderous explosion rocked an oil refinery Monday, injuring
five people and shaking buildings miles away.One
employee was hospitalized for burns, while three contractors
were treated and released, said Blake Lewis, a spokesman for
refinery owner Alon USA.
A fifth person was injured when
her car was struck by debris on Interstate 20, Big Spring
Mayor Russ McEwen told the Odessa American. She was treated
and released from a hospital.
Fires that lingered after the blast were
extinguished late Monday afternoon, Lewis said. The next step
will entail getting into the site to determine what happened
and how to make repairs.
Lewis said all workers were accounted for about an hour
after the explosion.
A skeleton crew of just 40 people
were there Monday because of the Presidents Day holiday, Alon
USA Vice President David Foster told the newspaper. There are
typically about four times as many people on duty at the time
of the explosion, he said.
Foster said he expected the refinery to
be offline for weeks.
The blast sent black smoke billowing into the sky, and
forced the closure of schools and an interstate.
"It was extremely scary. You shook you were so scared,"
said Laura McEwen, the mayor's wife, who lives about two miles
from the refinery. "Our walls shook. It jolted your bed. It
was like an earthquedimiles from the
d, "I thought it would knockthe walls down."
Two elementary schools were evacuated, then classes were
canceled at all nine campuses in the Big Spring school
district, assistant superintendent Carie Dunnam said.
Classes also were canceled at Howard College, according
to the two-year junior college's Web site.
The explosion forced open the
doors of the school district's administration building about
four miles from the plant, Dunnam said.
Interstate 20 was shut down near the
plant until about 6:30 p.m., the Department of Public Safety
said.
The 78-year-old refinery employs about 170 people and
has the capacity to put out about 70,000 barrels a day.
Big Spring is about halfway between El Paso and Dallas,
where Alon is based.
The blast followed one the night before at an iron pipe
factory in Utah that injured 11 workers, one critically.
The explosion occurred on the casting floor Sunday night
after a frozen pipe leaked water onto calcium carbide, said
John Balian, general manager at Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe
Co.
The explosion in Springville was
loud enough to be heard at the Utah County jail, more than 4
miles from the plant, sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.
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Fire at major US oil pipeline kills 2, sends oil
prices soaring 11-28-07
Flames and smoke are seen following an oil pipeline fire
that killed two workers Wednesday Nov. 28, 2007,
in Clearbrook, Minnesota
By Associated Press
CLEARBROOK, Minn. (AP) - A fire at a major pipeline
from Canada that feeds oil to the United States killed two
workers and sent oil prices soaring before burning out
Thursday morning, officials said.
The two were fixing the underground pipeline when fumes
apparently escaped, igniting the blaze Wednesday in
Clearbrook, about 215 miles northwest of Minneapolis, said
Kristine Chapin, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota
Department of Public Safety. Nearby residents were
evacuated because of the thick black smoke in the sparsely
populated area.
"It looks like it's out now. They're just mopping up and
making sure," Blake Olson, a pipeline terminal supervisor,
said Thursday morning.
Enbridge Energy Inc.'s 34-inch pipeline carries crude oil
from Saskatchewan to the Chicago area, Chapin said. The
pipe had leaked a few weeks ago and was being repaired,
she said.
"It appears as though one of those fittings may have
failed and caused fumes to leak, and it caught fire,"
Chapin said. She said there wasn't an explosion and
described it as a "big fire."
The crude is used to make several kinds of fuel, such
as gasoline and home heating oil. An average of 1.5
million barrels of oil passes through the pipeline every
day, said Larry Springer, a spokesman for Houston-based
Enbridge.
The U.S. consumes 20.58 million barrels of oil a day.
The pipeline that leaked and three others were shut down,
Enbridge said. Two of the lines were re-started Thursday
morning, Springer said. Another line will be inspected to
see if it is safe to come back online, but the line with
the leak will likely be out for some time, Springer said.
"Nothing is going to be re-started until we're absolutely
sure it's safe to be operated," Springer said.
The fire added jitters about the markets.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery jumped $3.47 to
$94.09 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York
Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. It climbed as
much as $4.55 to $95.17 in the electronic session before
slipping back.
The contract had plunged $3.80 to $90.62 a barrel
Wednesday in New York, adding to the previous session's
drop of $3.28. That was a front-month contract's second
largest two-day price decline since the Nymex introduced
futures trading in 1983.
In London, January Brent crude rose $2.21 Thursday to
$92.02 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
The names of the workers killed were not immediately
released.
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Nigeria: Fire - 70 Missing Persons On Red
Cross Register
269 DEAD
December 31, 2006
Posted to the web December 31, 2006
Lagos
At least 70 persons are reported missing
following the Christmas day pipeline explosion at Abule Egba area of
Lagos.
The names of the missing persons were
listed by their relations in the register opened by the Nigerian Red
Cross (NRC). Relations of the victims have been trooping to the
scene in search of their loved ones, asking for their wheareabouts
from Red Cross officials.
The officials are, however, unable to
provide necessary answers as a result of the difficulty in
identifying most of the corpses that were burnt beyond recognition.
There are indications that the figure of
missing persons is likely to increase as the days wear on, and as
many more relations return to Lagos from the Christmas, Sallah and
New Year celebrations
No less than 269 people and property
worth hundreds of millions of naira perished in the fire. A Red
Cross official, Mrs Abigail Adeyemi, said the register would
enable the organisation to ascertain the number of missing persons
and also to counsel relations of the victims.
"We are also giving information to
relations on where to locate survivors and possibly identify some
of the bodies at government mortuaries", she said.
A wailing elderly woman went distraught
when nobody in particular could tell her the whereabouts of her
three children she had come to take home.
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Copyright © 2006 This Day. All rights reserved
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July 22, 2007
Gas Prices Rise on Refineries’
Record Failures
Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record
number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this
year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim
production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to
highs not seen since last summer’s records.These mechanical
breakdowns, which one analyst likened to an “invisible hurricane,”
have created a bottleneck in domestic energy supplies, helping to push
up gasoline prices 50 cents this year to well above $3 a gallon. A
third of the country’s 150 refineries have reported disruptions to
their operations since the beginning of the year, a record according
to analysts.
There have been blazes at refineries in Louisiana, Texas,
Indiana and California, some of them caused by lightning strikes.
Plants have suffered power losses that disrupted operations; a midsize
refinery in Kansas was flooded by torrential rains last month.
American refiners are running roughly 5 percent below their
normal levels at this time of the year.
“You have a system that is taxed to the limit,” said Adam
Robinson, an energy research analyst at
Lehman Brothers. “This is what happens when spare capacity is
eroded.”
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted the nation’s energy
lifeline two years ago, oil companies delayed maintenance on many of
their plants to make up for lost supplies and take advantage of the
high prices. But, analysts say, they are now paying a price for
deferring repairs.
As a whole, refining disruptions have been considerably higher
than in previous years: they averaged 1.5 million barrels a day in the
first quarter, compared with 700,000 to 900,000 barrels a day from
2001 to 2005. In the days after the
hurricanes, refiners were forced to briefly halt as many as five
million barrels of production.
In 2006, when refiners were still reeling from the impact of the
hurricanes, disruptions in the first quarter averaged 1.35 million
barrels a day.
Many factors have led to the rise in gas prices, including
disruptions in oil supplies from places like Nigeria and Norway. But
analysts say the refining bottleneck in North America has been one of
the main drivers of higher energy prices this year.
The refining crunch has pushed wholesale gasoline prices up 35
percent this year and has contributed to a 23 percent gain for crude
oil prices. Oil futures in New York closed at $75.57 a barrel on
Friday.
Some critics of the industry have theorized on Internet blogs
that the squeeze on gasoline and other refined products points to a
deliberate effort among oil companies to bolster profits by keeping
supplies tight. But experts point out that the companies have little
incentive right now to hold back on fuel supplies.
“Every refinery would like to run as much crude as possible but
they simply can’t,” said David Greely, senior energy economist at
Goldman Sachs, who in a recent report compared the drop in
domestic refining with an “invisible hurricane.” “These are more
complex systems. There are more chances for things to go wrong. And
when things go wrong, they tend to back up the system.”
Meanwhile, refiners have been scrambling to meet a raft of
environmental regulations, phase out toxic additives, add ethanol to
the fuel mix and introduce new ultralow sulfur standards for gasoline
and diesel. Industry insiders attribute much of the fragility of
refining operations to the difficulty of making these cleaner fuels.
Refiners spent $9 billion from 2002 to 2006 to make low sulfur
diesel. But producing these cleaner fuels means processing crude oil
more intensely through the refining process, at higher pressures and
temperatures. This, in turn, leads to more chances for glitches or
breakdowns, refiners say.
“It’s a marvel we can continue to run refineries the way we do
these days given the many requirements and specification changes we
have,” said Charles T. Drevna, executive vice president of the
refining industry’s main trade group, the National Petrochemical and
Refiners Association. “There comes a time when the piper has got to be
paid.”
This year’s problems have raised alarms about the safety of
refining operations, especially after a deadly accident at a
BP refinery in Texas two years ago that killed 15 workers. The
federal Chemical Safety Board issued a highly critical report blaming
a broken safety culture at BP. But the board’s chairwoman, Carolyn W.
Merritt, who has spoken out about safety problems at refineries, said
there was a pattern in many other refinery incidents that the board
had investigated.
“There is a lack of investments in modern equipment,” Ms.
Merritt said. “The overwhelming preponderance is that if you have
inadequate engineering and equipment, poor process safety management,
and poor staffing, you’re set up for a catastrophe.”
Ms. Merritt, who was appointed by President Bush and will retire
after her five-year term ends in August, also said the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not conduct
enough inspections. “There is no enforcement,” she said.
OSHA defended its record and said it had inspected almost 500
refineries from 1994 to 2004. The agency also said it would inspect
all refineries under its jurisdiction within the next two years. “OSHA
inspections of refineries have proven to be effective,” the agency
said.
Meanwhile, demand has been rising relentlessly, providing little
respite to the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. Even as consumers
complain loudly about high prices, they show no signs of scaling back.
Gasoline consumption reached 9.66 million barrels a day in the first
week of July, the second-highest level on record.
“The cushion that used to be available five to seven years ago
for these unplanned perturbations is no longer there,” said Jeet
Bindra,
Chevron’s president of global refining. “When a refinery has a
hiccup, there are consequences on supplies.”
Part of the problem, analysts and refiners said, stems from the
hurricanes two years ago. In Louisiana and Mississippi, many
refineries were flooded, and about a quarter of the nation’s refining
capacity was shut for weeks.
“Since refining has become such a wonderful business, refiners
have delayed maintenance,” Mr. Robinson said. “But when they do go
down, they stay down for longer and they discover all sorts of
problems.”
In late March, for example, a fire at a large compressor at a BP
refinery in Whiting, Ind., caused a hydrogen-treating unit that
removes sulfur from some oil products to shut. That meant BP had to
turn off a crude oil unit for early maintenance. Two weeks later, a
brief power disruption damaged another distillation tower. And in
July, a third crude oil tower was shut briefly so operators could fix
a small leak. Since the first incident, the 405,000 barrels-a-day
refinery has been running at about half its capacity.
Not all refining disruptions are the result of similar
incidents. Refineries typically schedule yearly maintenance that
sometimes requires them to halt production entirely. But even these
long-scheduled shutdowns can now take longer to complete.
No refineries have been built in the United States in over three
decades, because refiners say they are too costly. Instead, they have
been expanding their existing refineries.
All this is happening as the industry goes through another
golden age. After 20 years in the doldrums, the refining business has
never been so good for oil companies. Refining margins — the
difference between the price of crude oil and the value of refined
gasoline made from it — have shot up as much as $25 a barrel for some
types of crude oil, compared with about $5 a barrel just a few years
ago.
But with a third summer of high gasoline prices, lawmakers are
debating legislation they claim would punish oil companies for
exploiting the tight supply situation and engaging in “price gouging.”
At the same time, they are pressing refiners to produce more fuel.
“Refiners want to keep running in today’s economic environment,”
said Mr. Drevna of the refiners association. “But when they shut down
they are accused of gouging the system. When they don’t, they are
criticized for overrunning their facilities.”
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Blast hits Gary-Williams refinery
Fri May 12, 2006
HOUSTON (Reuters) - An explosion rocked the 53,000 barrel per
day (bpd) Gary-Williams Energy Corp. refinery in Wynnewood, Oklahoma,
on Friday afternoon, the company said.
No deaths or injuries were reported because of the explosion,
according to a Wynnewood Fire Department spokeswoman. There were no
indications of sabotage on Friday afternoon.
The explosion occurred in an alkylation unit at the refinery at
about 2 p.m. CDT (1 p.m. EDT), said Sally Allen, vice president of
administration and governmental affairs.
A source at the refinery had said the explosion took place in
the 21,000 bpd catalytic cracking unit at the refinery. An alkylation
unit is usually connected to a catalytic cracking unit at a refinery.
Allen said she did not if all operations at the refinery were
halted due to the explosion and fire.
Firefighters from five towns near Wynnewood were still battling
the blaze two hours after the blast, the fire department spokeswoman
said.
An alkylation unit takes by-products produced by a cat cracker
changes them into octane-enhancing components that can be added to
gasoline.
The refinery in Wynnewood, 67 miles south of Oklahoma City, is
operated by Wynnewood Refining Co., a subsidiary of privately held
Gary-Williams. The refinery produces gasoline, diesel fuel, military
jet fuel, solvents and asphalt, according the Gary-Williams Web site.
In October, Gary-Williams announced it planned to boost the
refinery's production to 70,000 bpd by mid-2007. Including in the
upgrade to boost the refinery's capacity were modifications to meet
ultra-low sulfur diesel rules taking effect in June.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
New
Details on Explosion at Wynnewood Oil Refinery
Posted:
May 12, 2006 08:21 PM PDT
New details on the explosion that occured at a Wynnewood
oil refining company today. KTEN's Andrea Kurys was at the scene in
Garvin County earlier this afternoon.
Officials on the scene were not letting any traffic through the
small town of Wynnewood. Firefighters told KTEN that they were doing
house-to-house evacuations of the immediate area near the fire.
Residents east of the refinery and south of Oklahoma 29 make up about
half the town's population of 2500 people.
Early reports indicate an alkaline unit exploded at the Gary
Williams Energy Corporation. Thick black smoke could be seen from
miles away, and officials shut down highways leading into the town.
Cecil Cash lives in Joy,Oklahoma just 2 and a half miles
from where the explosion occured. He waited 10 minutes,
and then tried to find an alternative route to get home. Cash said,
"I live in the general area here and I understand there's
been an explosion at the Williams Refinery and they've got everything
blocked off to a one mile radius."
Trains on the railroad through the town were also on hold.
Firefighters from all over the area raced to burn off extra fuel in
the lines to prevent the spreading of the fire. There have been no
injuries confirmed at this time. At the gary williams energy
corporation, they produce unleaded, premium and diesel fuels.
Andrea Kurys, KTEN News
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May. 12, 2006
Some 200
reported dead in Nigeria blast
By ASSOCIATED
PRESS
ILADO, Nigeria
A gas pipeline exploded in Nigeria as
villagers collected fuel from the ruptured conduit, killing between 150
and 200 people and leaving charred bodies scattered around the blast
site.
Dozens of burned corpses could be seen lying on the ground at the
waterside village of Ilado, about 45 kilometers east of Lagos, Nigeria's
main city, and police said dozens had perished in the flames.
"Between 150 and 200 people died," Lagos Police
Commissioner Emmanuel Adebayo told reporters. Rescue workers dug a ditch
near the exploded pipeline and Adebayo said the bodies would be buried
in a common grave.
"They are going to be given a mass burial," Adebayo
said.
The impoverished people of Africa's oil giant often tap into
pipelines, seeking fuel for cooking or resale on the black market. The
highly volatile petroleum can ignite, incinerating those collecting it.
In September 2004, an oil pipeline exploded near Lagos as thieves
tried to siphon oil from it, with up to 50 people perishing in the
flames. A 1998 pipeline blast killed over 1,000 in southern Nigeria.
Most of Nigeria's oil is pumped in the southern Niger Delta
region, far from Lagos. Pipes carry the crude to refineries across the
vast nation.
Nigeria, which normally pumps 2.5 million barrels of crude per
day, is Africa's largest producer and the fifth-largest source of
imports to the United States.
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| Oil Pipeline Bursts Into Flames
Near Lagos, NNPC Says
May 12. 2006 (Bloomberg) -- An oil pipeline
near Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city, burst into
flames today and killed at least 100 people, Red Cross and
Nigerian officials said.
A pipeline carrying refined products caught fire at
Inagbe Creek outside of Lagos, said Nigerian Red Cross
Secretary General Abiodun Orebiyi, who visited the site.
The cause of the explosion is unknown, he said. The
pipeline was already vandalized and was being tapped by
villagers, he said.
``Very many people were there trying to scoop the
fuel for money,'' Orebiyi said in an interview from Lagos.
``It has happened over and over again. Nobody could say
what actually happened. Maybe it was caused by the
clashing of metals by people trying to take fuel from the
vandalized pipe.''
Levi Ajuonuma, a spokesman for the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corp., which operates the pipeline that carries
refined petroleum to Lagos, a city of more than 10
million, confirmed the explosion. Ajuonuma declined to
provide details, saying his agency would issue a statement
later today.
Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger delta, denied involvement in the
explosion. MEND's attacks on pipelines and an export
terminal run by the Nigerian venture of Royal Dutch Shell
Plc earlier this year halted output of as much as 631,000
barrels of oil a day, more than a quarter of Nigeria's
production.
``All this works to our advantage in some ways,''
Gbomo said in an e-mail to Bloomberg. ``We wouldn't want
to kill so many innocents in any attack,'' he said. ``I'm
not a part of it.''
The explosion comes a day after three foreign oil
workers were kidnapped in the southeastern city of Port
Harcourt. The workers, one of whom was an Italian, were
released today, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. On May
10, an American employee of oil-services company Baker
Hughes Inc. was killed in a drive- by shooting.
``It's a hell of a week,'' said Antony Goldman, an
analyst at London-based Clearwater Research. ``It shows
the full range of challenges that are presently facing the
oil sector at time when the politics in Nigeria is already
volatile.''
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To contact the reporter on this story:
Julie Ziegler in Lagos at jziegler@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 12, 2006 10:52 EDT
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Nigeria pipeline blast kills up to 200 -police
Fri May 12, 2006
By Tom Ashby
INAGBE BEACH (Reuters) - A pipeline explosion killed
up to 200 people on the outskirts of Nigeria's biggest
city Lagos on Friday, police said.
The Red Cross said the pipeline blew up while
vandals were tapping into it to steal petrol, igniting
about 500 nearby jerrycans full of fuel. Theft of fuel or
crude oil from pipelines is common in Nigeria.
"You can see the corpses. Some are burnt to
ash. Others are remnants. ... We estimate 150 to 200
people died," Lagos State Police Commissioner
Emmanuel Adebayo said at the scene.
Up to 50 charred, unrecognisable corpses were
huddled close to the pipeline, which had been dug out of
the sand and bore visible marks of drilling in several
places.
The pipeline, which belongs to state company
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), runs just
under the surface of Inagbe Beach, a stretch of golden
sand on one of many islands that dot the Lagos lagoon.
About a dozen police and a few Red Cross officials
were at the scene. Most of the bodies were close to the
pipeline but a few were floating in the sea. Inagbe Beach
is not a populated area but people apparently came there
to tap into the pipeline.
A dilapidated port city home to an estimated 13
million people, Lagos has been hit before by devastating
explosions. A blast at a munitions dump in 2002 killed
more than 1,000 people.
(Additional reporting by Tume Ahemba)
© Reuters 2006. All Rights
Reserved. | Learn
more about Reuters
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Chevron Earnings Soar 49 Percent to $4 Billion
By Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
Friday 28 April 2006
San Ramon, Calif. - Chevron Corp.'s
first-quarter profit soared 49 percent to $4 billion, joining the
procession of U.S. oil companies to report colossal earnings as
lawmakers consider ways to pacify motorists agitated about rising gas
prices.
The San Ramon, Calif.-based company's net
income, reported Friday, translated into $1.80 per share, two cents
above the average estimate among analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
It compared to a profit of $2.7 billion, or $1.28 per share, in the same
January-March period last year.
Revenue totaled $54.6 billion, a 31
percent increase from $41.6 billion last year.
If not for continuing production problems
caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last summer, Chevron said it would
have made an additional $300 million - an amount that would have
generated the highest quarterly profit in the company's 127-year
history.
As it was, the performance marked the
fourth consecutive quarter that Chevron has earned at least $3.6 billion
as the company continued to capitalize on oil prices that have climbed
above $70 per barrel since the first quarter ended.
The run-up recently has pushed gasoline
prices above $3 per gallon, much to the frustration of consumers and
politicians looking to win votes in an election year.
Chevron released its results after two of
its biggest rivals, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp., already
provoked public outrage with similarly large first-quarter profits.
Combined, the three oil companies earned $15.7 billion during the three
months of the year.
Go
to Original
Profits, Prices Spur Oil Outrage
By Steven Mufson and Shailagh Murray
The Washington Post
Friday 28 April 2006
Exxon Mobil posts first-quarter rise.
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported $8.4 billion in
first-quarter profit yesterday, as members of Congress outraged over
high gasoline prices hastened to propose measures that would boost taxes
on oil firms, open new areas to drilling and provide rebates to
taxpayers but would not necessarily alter prices at the pumps.
The earnings outstripped the oil giant's
profit in the first quarter of last year. Given current oil market
conditions, analysts said, that puts Exxon Mobil on track to break the
$36 billion record profit it made last year.
Meanwhile, President Bush sought to show
that he was responding to calls for action in the face of rising
gasoline prices. While visiting a gasoline station in Biloxi, Miss.,
Bush renewed his call for Congress to give him the authority to
"raise" mileage standards for all passenger cars. White House
officials said later, however, that they didn't know when or how the
president would use that authority.
Congress has the authority to approve
changes in mileage standards for passenger cars, and the executive
branch can set them for light trucks without approval from Congress. But
neither Congress nor the administration has shown much interest in
raising passenger car standards, which were set in the 1970s and haven't
changed since 1985. In March, the Bush administration said it would
raise average fuel economy standards by 1.9 miles a gallon for
sport-utility vehicles, pickups and vans for models in 2008 through
2011, a long-awaited move that environmentalists said was too modest.
In Congress, anger over gasoline prices
brought action in the Senate to a screeching halt yesterday, with
Democrats interrupting debate over an emergency military spending bill
to protest a key oil company subsidy. In a highly unusual move, Sen. Ron
Wyden (D-Ore.) waged a solo filibuster on the Senate floor in an attempt
to force a vote on a provision that would halt support for what Wyden
said were about $35 billion for oil and gas companies. "This is the
big one, folks, in terms of energy subsidies," Wyden said during
the five-hour standoff. "This is the one where there is no logical
case ... when oil is $70 per barrel."
Various committees and individual
lawmakers scrambled to offer relief to consumers, punish suppliers and
promote favorite energy-related provisions, most of them offering little
or no immediate relief at the gas station pumps.
Senate GOP leaders rolled out a fat
package of energy measures, including a $100 rebate to most taxpayers,
and reaffirmed authority for state and federal officials to fight price
gouging. The proposal also would allow drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska; Democrats called the controversial idea a
deal-killer for the rest of the package.
Democrats unveiled their own ideas,
including various windfall-profit rebates, a temporary suspension of the
federal gas tax and alternative energy investments.
For all the criticism from Congress, Exxon
Mobil's earnings fell slightly short of analysts' expectations, and
company shares fell 68 cents to close at $62.42 a share.
In an attempt to simultaneously impress
investors and calm politicians, Exxon Mobil spokesman Ken Cohen stressed
that compared with the year-earlier quarter, the company had increased
its worldwide oil and gas production by 5 percent, boosted capital
spending by 41 percent and paid worldwide taxes that amounted to a 46
percent rate.
But analysts, while impressed by the
production numbers, noted that much of the increase in capital spending
came from sharply rising costs for oil services and that the high tax
rates were a result of high crude oil prices. In many countries,
sliding-scale tax rates rise as prices do; Norway taxes some portion of
output at rates as high as 70 percent, and Libya's effective tax rates
can go as high as 90 percent, analysts said.
Exxon also said it spent $5 billion buying
back its own shares, more than the $4.1 billion spent on exploration and
production. The company said it expected to spend $6 billion
repurchasing its own shares in each of the remaining quarters this year.
Wall Street analysts discounted the
likelihood of congressional action against oil companies. "As
someone in the industry for more than 25 years, I've seen it
before," said Fadel Gheit, an oil company analyst at Oppenheimer
& Co. "Penalizing oil companies does not lower prices at the
pump. If we have a windfall profits tax, it will just create another
moneybag for the government. It will not increase oil production by one
barrel. It will not lower gasoline prices by one cent or alter our
dependence on OPEC countries."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
also cautioned Congress on the various proposals being floated. In
response to a question at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee,
Bernanke said, "Unfortunately, after many years of not really doing
as much as we should on the energy front, this situation has arisen. And
I don't see any way to make a marked impact on it in the very short
run."
Bernanke said a windfall profits tax would
reduce incentives for companies. "What we need to do," he
said, "is think about whether there are actions we can take that
over at least a number of years will put us on a more secure
footing."
And he added, "I would like to let
the market system work as much as possible to generate new supplies,
both of oil but also of alternatives, and for the prices, painful as
they may be, to help generate more conservation and alternative uses of
energy on the demand side."
While many of the proposals in Congress
are familiar, costly and unlikely to be enacted, bipartisan political
pressure for action could result in tougher scrutiny and possible
sanctions against the oil industry - until recently one of the closest
allies of the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress
The Senate Finance Committee, for
instance, requested federal income tax returns for the past five years
from the 15 largest oil and gas companies, based on sales, in what could
amount to a congressional audit. "We're seeing record profits and
significant executive compensation in the oil and gas industry,"
said Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "I
want to make sure the oil companies aren't taking a speed pass by the
tax man."
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously
voted to allow the Justice Department to prosecute countries that belong
to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for price fixing in
violation of U.S. antitrust laws. "What you have today is an
oligopoly, effectively, and I think it's a disaster for the American
people," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a member of the
panel.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter
(R-Pa.) said GOP leaders had assured him they were eager to push the
legislation to the floor, pointing out the political pressure -
including a series of Democratic news conferences held in recent days at
Capitol area gas stations.
|
|
1605 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
|
Phone: 202.225.6565
Fax: 202.225.5547
|
UNRECOVERED GOLD IN THE GULF -- (House of
Representatives - October 18, 2005)
|
Mr. Speaker, down in the depths of the warm waters of the
Gulf of Mexico lies some old Spanish galleon with unrecovered
gold, but there is another type of gold in the bottom of the
Gulf of Mexico, black gold. We call it crude oil. There is also
white gold there as well. We call it natural gas.
These natural gold reserves are energy for today's
Americans and we need to drill for these gold reserves.
According to the Department of Energy, families across the
United States will experience winter heating bills that will be
up to 50 percent higher for those who heat with natural gas.
This alarming data is yet another reason for us to open up the
Outer Continental Shelf and begin drilling for more natural gas
and oil off our own coastlines.
The so-called global warming will not keep Americans warm
this winter. We have got to become more self-sufficient when it
comes to energy, natural gas and crude oil. It borders on the
absurd to continue to be held hostage by foreign countries and
foreign oil and ignore the billions of barrels that have yet to
be drilled off the United States coastline.
Mr. Speaker, I have introduced H.R. 3811 to help relieve
our energy woes and help stop U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
This legislation will allow for safe oil and natural gas
exploration along the Outer Continental Shelf. This bill would
do away with all the moratoriums and executive orders that limit
leasing activities while maintaining environmental.
Right now 90 percent of our coastline is off limits to
drilling because the Federal Government prohibits it. In this
chart, Mr. Speaker, I show the three places off the coast of
Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi where we drill. All the red
here, these are sacred places where we cannot drill for oil.
Maybe Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi ought to join OPEC.
In any event, Mr. Speaker, we have got to drill off these
other areas because there is oil and there is natural gas in
these areas off our Outer Continental Shelf.
It is a myth, Mr. Speaker, that we cannot drill offshore
safely. The best experts in the world are from the United States
and they know how to drill safely. It is a myth perpetrated on
the American people by environmental extremists. No one wants
polluted waters. I certainly do not, but we can have both safe
drilling and environmentally correct drilling as well.
Let us look at some of the facts, Mr. Speaker. This chart
shows pollution from oil, crude oil. Most of the pollution that
is in our oceans comes from nature itself, from seepage on the
bottom of the ocean. About 63 percent comes from nature; 32
percent comes from jet skis and oil runoff from American soil; 3
percent comes from those tankers that are bringing crude oil in
from the Middle East; and way down here 2 percent of the
pollution of crude oil comes from offshore drilling. It is a
myth to think that we cannot drill offshore in a correct, an
environmentally correct way.
The National Academy For Sciences has furnished this
information. The American public needs to know the truth about
offshore drilling. If coastlines like Florida are worried about
the environmental threats, maybe they should stop people from
using jet skis and boating because more than a quarter of the
spills come from just that. But maybe we should do some
research.
According to the Department of Interior, since 1985 more
than 7 billion barrels of oil were produced in Federal offshore
waters, with less than .001 percent spilled. That is a 99.99
percent record for clean operations. My Jeep leaks more oil than
this.
Katrina and Rita hit the coastline very hard, Mr. Speaker.
There were high winds, billions of dollars in damages,
refineries were closed, but we did not hear anything about oil
spills from offshore rigs that were damaged. Why? Because it
cannot occur. Even those violent ladies of the gulf could not
get a good oil spill to happen.
People in these coastal States want cheap gasoline. They
want natural gas, but they say do not drill off our coastlines.
Mr. Speaker, this is hypocritical and it violates common sense.
Plus, leasing these reserves will bring money to the United
States Treasury and to State governments.
If Americans expect to continue driving and heating their
homes at low prices, we must begin safe drilling in other places
besides the gulf. Economies on the coast rely heavily on tourism
and they voice concerns about the so-called environmental
impact. Mr. Speaker, if fuel costs continue to rise, the planes
and automobiles will be used less and these tourists will never
show up at these coastal places. It seems like the consequences
of higher gas prices could have a worse impact than an innocent
oil rig that is 100 miles off the coast.
Around the world nearly every other major country with oil
and gas reserves is promoting investment and developing their
offshore capacity. They even drill in the North Sea, the
roughest waters in the world, and they do so safely.
Mr. Speaker, we need to continue to explore the Outer
Continental Shelf or we will suffer the consequences. Someone
has said we will freeze in the dark and end up riding bicycles
if we do not use common sense. Mr. Speaker, that is just the way
it is.
|
FROM: http://www.house.gov/poe/remarks/Oct05/gulfoil10-18.htm
|
The Associated Press
/
WASHINGTON
By BRAD FOSS
AP Business Writer
Oil prices settle above
$72 a barrel
APR. 19 5:31 P.M. ET
Oil prices leapt above $72 a barrel Wednesday, settling at a record high
for the third straight day, after a government report showed shrinking
U.S. gasoline supplies and traders fretted about nuclear tensions
between Iran and the international community
Press
/CATION>
WASHINGTONOCATION>
By BRAD FOSS
AP Business Writer
Oil prices settle above
$72.00
Oil prices leapt above $72 a barrel Wednesday, settling at a record high
for the third straight day, after a government report showed shrinking
U.S. gasoline supplies and traders fretted about nuclear tensions
between Iran and the international community.
Supply constraints in Iraq, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico are also
pushing oil prices higher, and analysts are predicting more pain at the
pump this summer for motorists, who so far appear to be only lightly
tapping the brakes on demand.
Light sweet crude for May delivery climbed as high as $72.40 a
barrel, before settling at $72.17 on the New York Mercantile Exchange,
an increase of 82 cents from the previous day. The contract had risen as
high as $71.60 on Tuesday
Oil futures contracts through July 2009 are now trading above $70 a
barrel. "In effect, the market is saying this is going to be with
us for a while," said A.G. Edwards & Sons commodity analyst
Bill O'Grady.
In its weekly report, the U.S. Energy Department said the nation's
supply of gasoline shrank by a larger-than-expected 5.4 million barrels
last week to 202.5 million barrels. It was the seventh straight weekly
decline, leaving inventories 4.6 percent below year ago levels.
Gasoline inventories typically decrease this time of year as refiners
shut down their plants to perform maintenance ahead of the summer
driving season. And oil traders typically point to the decreases as
reason for concern about summertime supplies, a routine that, more often
than not, sends futures prices higher.
That said, there is additional worry about summer gasoline supplies
because of the prospect of tight supplies of ethanol, which is needed in
increasing amounts as refiners phase out their use of methyl tertiary
butyl ether, or MTBE, which has been found to contaminate drinking
water.
Oil analyst John Kilduff of Fimat USA in New York said there would be
a "painful runup" in gasoline prices as summer approaches, and
he said oil prices could rise as high as $80 a barrel by the end of
June. Purchased today, crude for June delivery costs $74 a barrel.
However, in a sign that consumers may be responding to higher prices,
the Energy Department report also showed that average daily gasoline
demand since the start of the year is up 0.9 percent, compared with an
increase of 1.4 percent during the same period in 2005.
And the chief financial officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's
largest retailer, warned Wednesday that the company's lower income
customers were likely to curtail discretionary spending this year
because of higher fuel costs.
Nymex gasoline futures rose 1.55 cent to settle at $2.2394 per gallon
on Wednesday and they are more than 40 percent higher than a year ago.
The average retail price of gasoline nationwide is $2.80 a gallon,
though stations are charging more than $3 a gallon in many parts of the
country.
The biggest factor underpinning higher gasoline prices is the roughly
38 percent rise in crude oil costs over the past year. On an
inflation-adjusted basis, oil prices would have to rise above $90 to
exceed the all-time highs set a quarter century ago when supplies became
tight in the aftermath of a revolution in Iran and a war between Iraq
and Iran.
Analysts said the market psychology would likely remain bullish until
there is either a significant dropoff in demand or resolution to a
variety of geopolitical uncertainties, particularly the West's nuclear
dispute with Iran and output disruptions in Nigeria.
"The worries of Iran won't go away any time soon, and in that
sort of environment very few people are willing to be short on
oil," said Tobin Gorey, a commodities analyst with the Commonwealth
Bank of Australia in Sydney.
Traders are anxious that U.S.-led efforts to stop Iran, OPEC's
second-largest member, from pursuing a suspected nuclear weapons program
could lead to a disruption in Persian Gulf supplies.
Diplomats said Wednesday that the United States may turn to the U.N.
nuclear watchdog agency to exert more pressure on Iran out of
frustration with Russian and Chinese opposition to firm Security Council
action. On Tuesday, President Bush said he would continue to focus on
diplomacy but that "all options are on the table" to prevent
Iran from developing atomic weapons.
Fanning the flames of a red-hot oil market, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that record crude oil prices were still below
their "real value," though he stopped short of saying Iran
would use its vast resource as a weapon.
Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit said he did not believe
Iran was likely to cut off its oil supply to snub the West because it is
the lifeling of the country's economy.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 1.15 cent to close
at $2.0623 a gallon, while natural gas futures rose 18.4 cents to close
at $8.192 per 1,000 cubic feet.
At London's ICE Futures exchange, June Brent crude surged $1.22 to
settle at $73.73 a barrel.
|
|
CHEVRON
FUEL DEPOT EXPLOSION
A fire is
continuing to blaze at a fuel depot in Hertfordshire after a series of
large explosions sent black smoke drifting across south-east England.
12-11-05
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is to visit the scene of the
blasts which injured 43 people, two seriously. The incident
at the Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead, after 0600 GMT, was
said to be the largest of its kind in peacetime Europe. The
fire, which police believe was an accident, could burn for another day.
About 2,000 people living near the site have been evacuated, while
police have advised others to keep their windows and doors closed
because of fumes.
Thick clouds of smoke are spreading to the south-east and
south-west of the site. One person is in Watford General
Hospital in intensive care with respiratory problems. Another person is
in Hemel Hempstead Hospital being kept under observation.
The other 41 people were treated for minor injuries and discharged.
Witnesses said another two explosions followed the first at 0626 GMT and
0627 GMT at the site near junction 8 of the M1. Further
explosions In total, 20 petrol tanks were involved in the fire, each
said to hold three million gallons of fuel. Hertfordshire
Police Chief Constable Frank Whiteley told a press conference:
"There is still a possibility there could be further
explosions."
A police investigation into the incident has begun, including
investigations by anti-terrorist police. But Chief Con
Whiteley said there was "nothing to suggest anything other than an
accident". A Hertfordshire fire service spokesman said:
"This is possibly the largest incidence of its kind in peacetime
Europe." Samples of the smoke are being taken to
determine the long term effects of exposure, if any, according to Dr
Jane Halpin, director of Hertfordshire Public Health. She
said: "However, what I would restate is that those people who are
most at risk are those people who have inhaled the smoke."
Mr Prescott is on his way to the scene of the blast having earlier
visited Hertfordshire police headquarters. Tanker driver
Paul Turner said he ran for his life after the explosion lifted him off
his feet. "I just saw this great big ball of fire come
up from behind the building. It was about 50 metres wide," he told
the BBC. "Then there was the loudest explosion I have
ever heard in my life. I got up, turned around and ran to my car and
sped out of there as fast as I could." Many houses have
been damaged, with some reporting feeling effects from the explosion as
far away as Oxfordshire - while it was heard in a number of counties and
even France and the Netherlands. School closures Eye
witnesses reported buckled front doors, cracked walls and blown-out
windows. The M1 has been closed both ways between junctions 6a and 12
and may remain shut on Monday. Schools in and around Hemel
Hempstead are likely to be closed on Monday, said police.
We heard an explosion and the whole house shook 
Anil Taank, Northwood, Middlesex
The M10 motorway is closed in both directions between junction 1 and
junction 7 as well as some arterial roads in Hemel Hempstead.
Motorists have been told not to go "anywhere near the M1 from the
M25 upwards". At Heathrow airport some flights were
forced to delay landing because of smoke, but Luton airport was
operating as usual. The Buncefield depot is a major
distribution terminal operated by Total and part-owned by Texaco,
storing oil, petrol as well as kerosene which supplies airports across
the region, including Heathrow and Luton. The country's
fifth largest fuel distribution depot, it is also used by BP, Shell and
British Pipeline. Police said there was no indication the
explosion would cause fuel shortages and warned against panic-buying.
A spokesman for Total said: "We are doing everything we can to
support the emergency services and to bring the situation under
control." A spokesman for the Department for Trade and
Industry said it was too early to say what the effect would be on fuel
supply but oil companies were getting oil from other parts of the south
east and across the UK. "We understand that the
oil industry is meeting this afternoon to determine how the supply of
petroleum products can be augmented from other distribution
terminals," he said. Shadow trade and industry
secretary Alan Duncan, a former oil trader, said the oil industry had a
first class safety record. "This dramatic explosion
will need a serious inquiry and a proper study of its
implications," he said. A spokesman for the Health and
Safety Executive said it would be investigating the incident.
Concerned relatives can call a police casualty bureau on 0800 096
0095, or from abroad on 0207 1580125.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4517962.stm
| Total, Chevron Oil Depot Explodes North
of London (Update3)
Dec. 11. 2005 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s fifth-largest oil
depot, a facility owned by Total SA and Chevron Corp., exploded
north of London, injuring 39 people and sending a pall of smoke
across southeast England. Police said the blasts were accidental.
The first blast occurred just after 6 a.m. local time at the
Buncefield depot near the town of Hemel Hempstead about 20 miles
outside of London, where afternoon television broadcasts showed
fires still raging. Two of the people injured were ``seriously''
hurt, Howard Borkett-Jones, medical director of West Hertfordshire
Hospitals Trust, said at a televised briefing.
``All indications at this stage are that this was an
accident,'' police Chief Constable Frank Whiteley told a press
conference. ``There is nothing to suggest that there will be a
fuel shortage.''
Buncefield receives gasoline, diesel and other fuels from
Total's Lindsey plant about 150 miles away in North Lincolnshire,
the nation's fourth-biggest oil refinery. On a normal day a
tanker-truck is filled every four minutes at the depot, which also
supplies jet fuel by pipeline to Heathrow, Europe's busiest
airport.
Downwind from the fire in London, a black haze drifted in
the afternoon sky. Within five hours of the explosion, police said
the blaze was under control. More blasts at the depot were
expected later in the day, and police advised people living nearby
to stay indoors to avoid the smoke.
Panic Buying
Police reported ``panic buying'' of fuel at gas stations in
Hertfordshire. Total, Europe's biggest oil refiner, said the
explosions won't cause a fuel shortage.
``There is no need to panic,'' said Leslie Else, a
spokeswoman at Total's office in Watford, England. ``The U.K. has
sufficient infrastructure to cope with this situation.''
Total officials couldn't immediately say if the refinery
that supplies the terminal is still operating or if Total will be
able to meet its commitments to deliver fuels.
British Airways Plc, the largest carrier at Heathrow, said
it has enough fuel supplies to keep operations running. Heathrow
also gets jet fuel from the biggest U.K. refinery, Exxon Mobil
Corp.'s Fawley plant on the southern coast.
``There's no immediate impact at the moment, there's plenty
of fuel,'' said Gwen Jones, a spokeswoman for British Airways.
``We have contingency plans in place if we need them.''
Police closed part of the M1 motorway, the main road between
London and northern England.
Windows Blown Out
The depot is 60 percent-owned by Paris-based Total, and
Chevron's Texaco Inc. has the rest. It handled 2.37 million metric
tons of fuel in 2002, Total said. About 400 road tankers use the
depot each day.
Alex Yelland, a spokesman for Texaco, said the company has
offered its assistance to Total.
The site is also used by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc,
according to the British Broadcasting Corp. BP spokesman Roddy
Kennedy said windows had been blown out at a BP facility nearby,
though no other damage was reported.
Shell spokeswoman Bernadette Cunnane said the company was
still ``assessing the situation.''
|
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Casey in London at scasey4@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 11, 2005 10:46
EST |
|
|
|
|
Deadly Explosion Rocks BP Texas Refinery
Wed Mar 23, 2005 06:13 PM ET
TEXAS CITY, Texas (Reuters) - An explosion rocked BP's massive
refining complex in Texas City, Texas, on Wednesday, causing multiple
deaths and extensive damage, the company said.
BP confirmed that the blast had caused deaths at the nation's
third largest refinery but could not say how many had been killed. News
reports said at least four people died.
{Note: 14 dead and 100 injured reported}
"It's a sad day for BP," Don Parus, site director at the
refinery, told a press conference. "I have to report to you,
regretfully and with shock, that there have been fatalities."
The blast shook buildings and broke windows miles away and sent a
huge plume of black smoke billowing into the sky near the city of
Galveston. About 90 workers and local residents had been admitted to
nearby hospitals, several in critical condition.
The company said it did not suspect a terrorist attack was behind
the blast, which caused several scattered fires at the plant that took
firefighters about two hours to extinguish.
{Note: Cause is said to be unknown at this point. It occurred in
the section where additives were put into the gasoline to improve
mileage.}
An FBI spokesman said the agency would investigate the incident as
a matter of course, but had no reason to suspect any suspicious
activity.
The explosion took place on the western side of the sprawling
1,200-acre complex at about 1:20 p.m local time (1920 GMT) in one of the
units used to make high-grade fuels. Company officials said the cause
was not immediately known.
Television reports showed workers carrying out the injured on
stretchers amid piles of twisted metal and rubble. Extreme heat from the
fire caused several cars and trucks parked on the site to explode.
"It shook everything," Rose Martin, who works near the
refinery, told a local television station. "As soon as I walked out
the door (to see it), it was nothing but fire and black smoke."
The BP refinery has a throughput of 470,000 barrels per day. The
company said damage had been limited to an isomerization unit, and that
other parts of the refinery remained in operation.
News of the refinery explosion sent gasoline futures prices on the
New York Mercantile Exchange to all-time peaks over $1.60 a gallon in
electronic trade and boosted cash prices in the Gulf Coast region.
The explosion comes almost one year to the day after another blast
and fire rocked the refinery and chemical complex. On March 30, 2004, a
large explosion and fire occurred in a gasoline-making unit but there
were no injuries.
That 2004 accident resulted in citations for 14 alleged violations
from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
BP took over the plant, which first began operations in 1934, when
it bought U.S. company Amoco in 1999.
Texas City Mayor Pro-tem Mike Land said a "shelter in
place" advisory had been issued, then withdrawn for nearby
residents of the plant.
"This is the lifeblood of our community and this is a
horrible disaster," Land said.
BP's U.S.-listed shares closed down 2.4 percent, or $1.51, at
$62.01 per share on the New York Stock Exchange.
In April 1947, Texas City was the site of one of the worst-ever
industrial accidents in the United States when a ship full of fertilizer
component ammonium nitrate blew up, killing as many as 800 and injuring
an estimated 5,000.
Reuters
March 23, 2005, 5:20PM
Background on the BP-Amoco plant in Texas City
Associated Press
BP-Amoco's Texas City plant is a 1,200-acre spread with 30 refinery
units. The plant processes 433,000 barrels of crude oil a day. One
of five BP refineries in North America, produces 30 percent of BP's
North American gas supply and 3 percent of the U.S. supply.
The refinery employs about 1,800 people, but spokesman Bill Stephens
said he didn't know how many were unaccounted for.
In March 2004 there was a blast and fire at a BP refinery in Texas City,
about 35 miles southeast of Houston. That explosion forced the
evacuation of the plant for several hours, but no one was injured.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the refinery
$63,000 in that blast after finding what it called serious safety
violations, including problems with the emergency shutdown system and
employee training. OSHA also fined the refinery this month for safety
violations after two employees were burned to death by superheated water
in September.
It was not immediately clear how production at the plant would be
affected, but traders said any prolonged shut down that affected
gasoline output could keep the market on edge heading into the summer
driving season.
For now, the country has an ample supply of gasoline, analysts said.
They cited the latest U.S. Energy Department report, which showed
inventories of gasoline 8 percent higher than a year ago despite a
decline of 4.1 million barrels last week to 217.3 million barrels.
About 31,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the refinery,
according to Census data.
Texas City is also the site of the worst industrial accident in U.S.
history. In 1947, a fire aboard a ship at the Texas City docks triggered
a massive explosion that killed 576 people and left fires burning in the
city for days.
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