[UncoveringTruths]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he fire was designated as a level 2 fire since smoke was emitted. However, Ballesteros said the scale of the fire did not require use of the community notification sirens or evacuation of nearby residents.

He did not say which system caught fire, nor the cause of the blaze, but said the unit has been shut down.

This marks Tesoro's eighth incident in the past year and a half.

[Yavicleus]

Man, these things blow up more often than Suicide Bombers.

[UncoveringTruths]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')esoro’s Golden Eagle refinery near Martinez, California, is the company’s largest facility with a rated crude oil capacity of 168,000 barrels per day.

[Sgs-Cruz]

I think we need a "refinery explosion / fire" megathread

Also, you can sometimes get some good technical insights into what is causing the explosions at the eng-tips forum for petroleum refining:

http://www.eng-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=483

[pup55]

bump

[pup55]

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic11795.html

refinery fire at tesoro facility

[mididoctors]

adam at oilcast has pointed out that down time is becoming a luxury with capacity stretched thus shutdowns and accidents may well increase

makes sense.. you need redundant capacity to take stuff offline for maintenance... the false price depression of the 90s post the kuwait war is becoming a increasing delayed disaster with every day that passes.

the time from cause to effect thru the investment cycle is completely out of sync with investor and consumer perception and even more out of step with political decision making... this disconnect is imbedded in the "system"

and requires humans to address time periods that are unorthodox up until now to see as relevant to the decisions they make

Boris
london

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Yavicleus', 'M')an, these things blow up more often than Suicide Bombers.

[caysal]

As we know capitalism is not given to allow itself to be
hindered by anyone or anything when large amounts of money are involved; does it not then stand that the problem with inadequate/no new refineries must be premeditated. Could it be we are intentionally lowering the standard of living in the USA and other rich nations as a part of the ever fashionable Globalization/New World Order? If not; then what pray-tell is the answer?
“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” Groucho Marx

[Barbara]

Hope I understood your question (my english is not that good).

Building a refinery needs an huge amount of money, and you can expect to be paid back in x number of years. Given that petroindustries knew of Peakoil in advance, they stop to throw money into something when in a few years it would be useless. Of course, a smart company would have been build a sour crude refinery, but either they're not that smart, or they're not so well informed, or there was no business in building a sour crude refinery just to let it not-operational until light crude Peakoil hits.

[Ancien_Opus]

Existing refineries have upgraded and increased their production capacity rather dramatically. You don't need to go through site specifications, environmental rules and public hearings nearly to the extent required for new as in order to expand on-site capacity. Scale of economy have forced out a lot the smaller refineries and now that profits are back in this sector of the oil business, it's under scrutiny. Just because we haven't built new refineries does not mean that there has been a loss of capacity. It has actually increased.

There is a lack of heavy sour oil refining capacity and that will be addressed. Just get ready to keep paying more for the final product. We truly don't need more light oil refineries, but more heavy sour refineries and they cost a lot more to build, staff and equip. Then get ready for the
next link in the oil business chain to fail.

Regards,

[caysal]

Barbara thanks for the reply and you may well be right! However even though I believe in peak oil, I never the less believe that
there is more then an adequate supply for the needs of the world for a good number of years to come. The problems we are facing today would seem to have more to do with refineries the a lack of supply.

[caysal]

Thanks Ancien_Opus I just read your post...

[aahala]

The lack of new refineries was certainly premeditated, but possibly not
in the sense you meant.

There is little financial incentive to over build. US oil consumption first
peaked in about 1979 at about 18.5 MBD. US refinery capacity in 1981
was about 18.5 MBD and if in full operation today, about 17 or so.

US consumption declined by several percentage points for about five years
after 1979 and then generally rose thereafter, but we didn't again reach
the 18.5 level until about 1997. So all that time, refinery capacity and
consumption were pretty much in balance.

It's only after 1997 that capacity was less than need, and the gap wasn't that large until recently.

[Gil-Galad]

Surely the other side of this is that no one wants a refinery built near where they live. I have been to the New Orleans area a few years ago and the whole place seemed to be very poor. I assume that the refineries were built there not only because they are near the Gulf and the ports where the oil is imported, but also because there was little oppostition from the residents because they were promised employment.

I cannot see people, say in Vermont, being too pleased if a new refinery was proposed there

[jaws]

Refineries have been so competitive in recent years that smaller refiners have been driven out of business by bigger, more efficient ones. This is why no new refineries have been built in 29 years.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jaws', 'R')efineries have been so competitive in recent years that smaller refiners have been driven out of business by bigger, more efficient ones. This is why no new refineries have been built in 29 years.

[CARVER]

The positive side of this story is that these high energy prices will now start to give incentives to lower consumption, which does not have to mean a lower standard of living right away, more demand for better efficiency. If we can limit the amount of oil we use per year, that would mean we could delay a decline. However if there is no limit (other than full production) we are probably gonna use all we can get. The thing we cannot buy is time, and it takes time to build extra refinery capacity. However better efficiency is already possible and available, so more and more people could already start switching to the most efficient products of the productline (when they need to replace it anyway, better to go with something efficient these days).

[nth]

Major Oil companies were planning to close even as late as 2004.
Due to political pressure... they were sold to small refiners instead.


This is more about oil companies not wanting to do business in environmentally sensitive areas. They had to invest millions to keep up with regulations. US refineries in 2006 have to meet new environmental standards which means to keep plants open, they have to invest upwards of $1billion. All US plants can be deemed unprofitable using this math, unless it is top 5 refineries in US.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jaws', 'R')efineries have been so competitive in recent years that smaller refiners have been driven out of business by bigger, more efficient ones. This is why no new refineries have been built in 29 years.