[DantesPeak]

Fire at Valero’s Corpus Christi Refinery in Texas Closes Shipping Channel and Caused Oil Spill

A fire that started in a storage tank near a dock at Valero Energy Corporation's refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, caused a major oil spill, as well as several minor spills. The spills prevented two ships from leaving the harbor and four vessels from entering the harbor. Valero says the fire was likely caused by lightning. Reuters.


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')une 1, 2006, 4:28PM
Valero Sustains Damage at Refinery Dock


© 2006 The Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Valero Energy Corp. said Thursday that the dock at its Corpus Christi refinery "sustained significant damage" after a lightning strike sent a wastewater storage tank ablaze, forcing the company to reduce its output by 70,000 barrels per day.

The company said in a statement emailed to reporters that it was unclear when full production would resume at the refinery, which has processing capacity of 340,000 barrels per day.

Geoff Atwood, chief of the privately run Refinery Terminal Fire Co., said oil cleanup was under way in port waters Thursday.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'V')alero Energy Corp. said Thursday that the dock at its Corpus Christi refinery "sustained significant damage" after a lightning strike sent a wastewater storage tank ablaze, forcing the company to reduce its output by 70,000 barrels per day.

The company said in a statement e-mailed to reporters that it was unclear when full production would resume at the refinery, which has processing capacity of 340,000 barrels per day.

The fire and heavy rains forced the closure Thursday of Corpus Christi Harbor as officials worked to clean up about 168,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the Corpus Christi Ship Channel from the Valero docks and a Citgo Petroleum Corp. facility nearby, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

[DantesPeak]

Oil spill continues:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')ains, fire contribute to major oil spill
Coast Guard working to contain oil to CC ship channel

By Brandi Dean/Caller-Times
June 1, 2006

The rain overnight combined with the water used to fight a fire at the Valero Bill Greehey Refinery caused a waste oil tank to overflow into the Corpus Christi ship channel just before 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

Mario Romero, petty officer with the Coast Guard, said response personel are still trying to determine how much oil is in the water and where all of it is coming from, but the current estimate is 168,000 gallons. The Coast Guard closed the ship channel to all traffic at 3:40 a.m.

"It's considered a major spill," Romero said.

The Coast Guard are currently using booms and vacuum trucks to contain the spill and soak up the oil. Right now, Romero said, they believe the oil is coming from the Valero refinery and the Citgo refinery. The ship channel has been closed for now.

[Pablo2079]

Is this enough to cause any price increases? Physically, it doesn't seem like it.... but there is always the emotional factor.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pablo2079', 'I')s this enough to cause any price increases? Physically, it doesn't seem like it.... but there is always the emotional factor.

[DantesPeak]

Under the 'lightning strikes twice' category:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ightning hits Valero's Delaware City refinery
Fri Jun 2, 2006 12:55pm ET

NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp. (VLO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday said lightning struck a plant transformer at its Delaware City, Delaware, refinery earlier in the day, causing several units to go down.

The units are expected to be back up later in the day, with no material effect on production.

The refinery has total throughput capacity of 210,000 barrels per day.

[DantesPeak]

Corpus Christi refineries restart, but Valero's Lake Charles refinery shuts down:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ew Orleans Times Picayune
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used by NewsBank with Permission.

June 4, 2006

Valero repair

The portion of the Valero St. Charles Refinery damaged in a May 20 fire will take four to six weeks to repair, company officials said Friday.

The fire, caused by a rupture in a pipe leading to the refinery's distillate hydrotreater, heavily damaged the unit, which removes sulfur from diesel fuel.

Other portions of the refinery, which were knocked out of service when electrical and data transmission lines were damaged in the blaze, should be back on line early next week, recovering about 10,000 barrels per day of low-sulfur diesel production, company officials said in a statement.

Under normal conditions, the plant refines 260,000 barrels of oil per day. Company officials said previously that about half the refinery's capacity was shut down by the blaze.

No one was injured in the fire.

[peaker_2005]

What a horrible run of luck... I wouldn't like to be Valero right now...

[DantesPeak]

Not terrorism, no impact on oil output they say.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne dead in fire at world's biggest oil refinery complex
Pub: 9/20/2006:
RIYADH - An oil worker was killed in a fire at the world's largest refinery complex at Ras Tanura in eastern Saudi Arabia Wednesday, a company spokesman said. The dawn fire at a gathering centre in the huge complex was put out in less than an hour and had no impact on its daily output of five million barrels per day, the spokesman for oil giant Saudi Aramco told AFP, asking not to be named.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire at the complex on a peninsula on Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast where hundreds of expatriate workers, including North Americans, work.

[seahorse2]

The timing of the SA fire is interesting. Maybe its a coincidence, but on the fifth anniversary of 9-11, Al Quaeda issued another video threatening economic doom, specifically calling for attacks on ME oil. [/url]Drudge Report

After that, there was an attack on oil facilities in Yemen Yemen foils Oil attack

Later, an attack in Turkey (against Kurds, so maybe unrelated to Al Qaeda). Yahoo News

[DantesPeak]

Saudi TV says don't worry (but according to AP the refinery capacity is 550,000 not the 55,000 stated):
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ep 20, 2006 Oil production said continuing at Saudi refinery after "minor" explosion
Text of report by Saudi Al-Ikhbariyah TV on 20 September:
Sources at Aramco have told Al-Ikhbariyah that production continues at the Ras Tannurah refinery and that it has not been affected by the minor explosion that took place at a gathering reservoir in the southern terminal of Ras Tannurah port. A Saudi operator was killed in the explosion.

The sources added that the resulting fire was put out and that production in the Ras Tannurah refinery, which has a capacity of 55,000 barrels per day, was continuing without any halt.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Worker Dies in Ras Tanura Terminal Fire P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News, JEDDAH, 21 Sep 2006:

... The worker was injured because he was standing near the fire, the official said, adding that the man later died in hospital. “The accident did not affect work at the terminal and Saudi Aramco has set up a committee to investigate the causes of the fire,” he added. The company expressed its deep sorrow at the death of the employee and conveyed condolences to the bereaved family. In February this year, a gas leak at the company’s Al-Juaymah gas facility killed two employees and injured four others.

The Saudi oil giant reaffirmed its commitment to ensure the safety and security of its employees by preventing leaks and taking other precautionary measures. Saudi Aramco entered the field of refining in 1941 with a 150 MTPY or 3 MBPD refinery at Ras Tanura. The plant was expanded in 1945 with the construction of a 2.5 MMTPY or 50 MBPD refinery.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')il prices seen remaining high through the decade
By Jasmina Kelemen, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:56 PM ET Dec 5, 2006

However, even if output had grown during that time the world would not have necessarily had enough refining capacity to process the extra barrels.

The industry's reluctance to invest in refineries over the past decade - a period of adequate supply, historically cheap oil, and weak refining margins -- means that refineries are currently processing about as much crude as they can handle.

But as crude prices rose from $20 a barrel at the start of the decade to their current levels around $60 a barrel, oil companies have begun loosening their purse strings, pumping their newfound wealth into expansion projects stateside and in brand new refineries abroad, which should help relieve supply-line bottlenecks by the end of the decade.

New refineries are expected to sprout up in an arc stretching from Saudi Arabia to India, while many U.S. refineries are being expanded or refurbished to refine harder-to-process heavy crudes into such products as gasoline and diesel.

While these developments should gradually bring prices off of their current plateau, they will not do so until at least 2010.

[nero]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tananda', 'T')hat statement makes absolutely no sense on the face of it! If using heavier oils were an economic winner then those would be the oils everyone used first, when in fact the exact opposite is true. Refineries capable of handling heavy oil still use light oil whenever they can, it refines a lot easier with less effort and less crude used up in the processing so for about a $10.00 barrell difference you still come out ahead paying extra for light sweet crude in terms of the products you are selling after refining.

[DantesPeak]

We're getting near the bottom of the barrel when bitumen processing starts to look like a good idea.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')lobal Refining & Fuels Report
December 6, 2006

Report: ConocoPhillips May Upgrade Montana Refinery to Process Heavier Crude

Peter Haldis

ConocoPhillips is reportedly planning to upgrade its 62,000 b/d Billings, Mont., refinery to process crude from Alberta oil sands, the Billings Gazette reported, citing company Chairman and CEO James Mulva.

Mulva told the paper ConocoPhillips is looking at different technologies to handle heavier crude oil and the companys board is likely to vote whether to go forward with the upgrade early next year.

In October, ConocoPhillips and EnCana announced a partnership under which they will spend $10.7 billion to increase oil sands production and refining capacity.

The agreement creates two 50/50 partnerships: one upstream in Canada and one downstream in the U.S.

The downstream partnership will involve ConocoPhillipss Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill., and its refinery in Borger, Texas. The companies aim to expand heavy oil processing capacity at the two refineries by 817% from their current 60,000 b/d capacity, to 550,000 b/d by 2015.

Half of the 550,000 b/d expansion (275,000 b/d) will be to process bitumen, which is likewise an 817% expansion from the refineries current 30,000 b/d bitumen capacity.

The total throughput of the two refineries is expected to be increased from 450,000 b/d, to 600,000 b/d.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DantesPeak', 'W')e're getting near the bottom of the barrel when bitumen processing starts to look like a good idea.

[DantesPeak]

This is a subject I've been mentioning for a while, and now, there's an article about it. That is – are US refinery problems becoming more frequent, and why?

After Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf of Mexico coast, the President and Secretary of Energy called on the unaffected refiners to defer maintenance and continue production at maximum levels. The downside of that decision is impacting refiners this year. As refiners have had to catch up with delayed maintenance, or make unexpected repairs, 'incidents' this year have been more frequent.

Ironically, as you will see below, the government's response to refinery problems caused by deferred maintenance is – making the working refineries defer maintenance!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')oncern grows on refinery safety
Breakdowns, which have led to higher pump prices in the state, raise worries about risks.
By Elizabeth Douglass, Times Staff Writer
March 23, 2007

Refineries in California and across the country are breaking down with unusual frequency this year, boosting prices at the pump and endangering workers and communities.

The rash of oil plant problems may not be a coincidence. The breakdowns stem from the hard use of aging equipment, a shortage of trained workers, corporate cost cutting and ownership changes, refinery experts say.

An unusually active maintenance schedule at many of California's 14 fuel-making plants over the last few months left the state vulnerable to outages and the resulting price surge. Mishaps further strained fuel production and left inventories low, said Claudia Chandler, the California Energy Commission's assistant executive director.

The agency was concerned enough to ask Valero Energy Corp. to postpone a project that would have cut gasoline production at its Wilmington refinery beginning in mid-April. The Valero facility produces about 14% of Southern California's gasoline.

Valero spokesman Scott Folwarkow said the company agreed to postpone the shutdown for a few months, calling it "the right thing to do for the right reasons."

[joewp]

I saw on CNBC today that there's several Texas refiners out with power problems. I could only find this article that mildly confirms it:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Since early February refineries in Texas, Louisiana, California, Delaware, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Colorado have trimmed fuel output because of fires and interrupted power supplies.

[SD_Scott]

I wonder how many good employees dedicated to safety have bailed out. I had training at Phillips petroleum corporate firefighting school and the people that taught at the school were absolutely beyond reproach. I can't imagine the attitudes around there these days.

[SILENTTODD]

I don't know. Better reporting? Lots of disgruntled employees? I work for a major Fortune 500 company and there are a lot more of them then there were 25 years ago.