Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5925 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:20 am Post subject: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Quote:
Breaking News: Explosion, Fire Reported at Valero
November 8, 2007 - 8:05AM
Port Arthur police and fire are reporting an explosion and fire at the Valero Refinery.
Authorities say the fire and explosion occured at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday in a unit at the center of the plant. A witness reports seeing one unit engulfed in flames.
Port Arthur police chief Mark Blanton tells KFDM News he's been told there are no injuries reported.
Police are blocking an area near Highway 82 and Highway 73.
We have crews at the scene. Stay with KFDM News for the very latest.
KFDM _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
After decades of stagnation and neglect in the area economy, Port Arthur is in the early stages of an economic boom. Several large projects involving the energy infrastructure are underway or proposed, the two largest being the Golden Pass and Sabine Pass LNG terminals. These separate projects under construction in neighboring Sabine Pass have brought cumulative initial investments of $2 billion, and will employ thousands at peak construction.
Home to a large chunk of United States refining capacity, Port Arthur is now seeing renewed investment in several key installations. Motiva Enterprises is undertaking a major addition to its western Port Arthur refinery, expanding capacity to 600,000 barrels per day [2]. This $3.6 billion project is the largest US refinery expansion to occur in 30 years [3]. Premcor Refining recently completed a $775 million expansion of its petrochemical plant, and BASF/Fina commenced operations of a new $1.75 billion gasification and cogeneration unit on premises of it's current installation, which had just completed its own $1 billion upgrade.
port activity
Long past its heyday in the early 1900's, successive waves of economic recession have delivered a nearly vacant, boarded up, and sometimes dangerous central business district. The Hotel Sabine, the tallest building in Port Arthur, was abandoned and purchased by the city. An attempt to sell the building failed in 2005, with no interested buyers. Hurricane Rita struck a direct hit on the Proctor Street Seawall, and damaged many downtown businesses and homes. As economic activity picks up in the region, calls for downtown revitalization have been advanced [4][5]. The true center of commercial activity has gravitated towards the junction of US 69 and Texas 365, with larger white-collar businesses moving to downtown Beaumont. As of 2008, the last downtown banking establishment, Capital One will relocate to Texas 365, which coincides with the closing of the last pharmacy, Walgreens, and the last grocery store, Lucky 7. Several municipal and county offices have moved in to fill the void.
_________________ "The age of excess is over. The age of entropy has begun"
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:36 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Ugh.
This is at least the seventh or eighth Valero-related refinery screwup since we started keeping track. I will have to go back and look at my records from the spring and summer for an accurate count.
At some point, it is a conscious management decision to run their plant in a certain way (cheap) and not do maintenance, and accept the consequences. BP is on this same program, if I am not mistaken.
They do not necessarily make up for it by having a lower refining margin, as we learned from the other thread.
I think they did inherit some older refineries, and perhaps this is an artifact of the industry in that with really erratic refining margins they cannot justify certain retrofits that might improve their reliability.
Joined: Jun 18, 2005 Posts: 3912 Location: In a van down by the river
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:41 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
I don't think that is it Pup the problem is they now do not ever have a chance to do what needs to be done to keep these plants safe.
The Chinese just came out yesterday and said that they would run more oil through their refineries and delay maintenance, all in an effort to keep up with supply. And of course there is higher price to be paid when working with heavy sulfur crude.
These plants just never can slow down now, we need the fuel.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5925 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:45 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Eli wrote:
The Chinese just came out yesterday and said that they would run more oil through their refineries and delay maintenance, all in an effort to keep up with supply. And of course there is higher price to be paid when working with heavy sulfur crude.
These plants just never can slow down now, we need the fuel.
You may remember just over two years ago President Bush asked refineries to defer maintenence. We now see that decision in the longer term was counter-productive.
I strongly suspect that in an age of declining oil quality that China will experience the same results we have seen.
However as pup55 states, it also doesn't appear that refiners have a firm grip on knowing what to do with what they have and with dealing with changing oil quality. They are making adjustments, as indicated in stu's link, but not fast enough. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5925 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:56 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
CNBC reports that the explosion was in the diesel cracker unit, and it appears to be confined to that area. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:00 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
I do not have any specifics at my fingertips, but in looking through the quarterly reports, most of the refiners have some project or another in the works that they are spending some number of billions on, and will be complete in 18 months to two years.
I will try to go back this afternoon if time permits to give some detail on this.
A lot of this stuff requires air pollution permitting that is difficult in some cases. The Port Arthur area, in particular, is especially bad in this regard.
But, we have said before that these units are hot, and even worse, cycle through hot and cool cycles, and they are made of metal, and eventually they want to break down unless you do constant disciplined maintenance.
In fact, I just recently attended a technical meeting about this topic, and you would be shocked how many places in one of these big pieces of equipment are subject to corrosion and/or potential meltdown because of the extreme heat involved. Every valve, every joint, every place where something is welded onto the outside, anyplace where the heat builds up more in one spot than the surrounding metal, all sorts of places you would never think of are potential spots for failure.
On the good side, these things are pretty standardized throughout the industry, so there is some communication among the engineers about where to look for potential failure spots, even between companies. But I maintain that it is not the engineers' fault, if it is the operating philosophy of the company to run this stuff until it drops.
We can probably go back and calculate again how many millions per day BP is losing because those two big refineries are down. Same is true for Valero.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5925 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:09 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Quote:
Investigators are now trying to confirm the cause of the fire in the unit at the center of the plant. They say a power failure may have led to the explosion and fire.
KFDM
There is not much information available yet, but recovery from sudden power failures are not quick. If, for example, the whole plant lost power, we could be looking at a major loss of production. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5925 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:11 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Quote:
Because of the explosion and fire, the refinery is operating at about 60 percent of capacity, or 165,000 barrels of crude processing compared with normal daily capacity of 265,000 barrels.
Total hydrocarbon feedstock capacity is at about 190,000 barrels compared with more than 300,000 barrels of daily processing, he said.
Gillingham said an electrical problem centered around the diesel furnace in the northwest quadrant of the refinery occurred between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.
Refinery officials are uncertain what caused the ignition in the furnace. The cause is under investigation.
Valero's firefighting units quenched the fire with assistance from fire units at neighboring Chevron Phillips. The Port Arthur Fire Department was present in a reserve capacity, Gillingham said.
The latest news states they are maintaining some production, so apparently they did not have a total power loss.
This is certainly bad news on diesel supplies. It was recently discussed that the US might even send diesel to Europe because of short supplies there. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:20 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Eli said:
Quote:
These plants just never can slow down now, we need the fuel.
Well - that is back assed-logic if I have ever heard it! Burning up your plants is not going to increase fuel supplies, period. Reducing maintenance isn’t going to do it either. So the idea here is that we can have a little more today and none tomorrow. I looks to me like the oil industry is on a tread mill that is going faster and faster, and they are getting wearier and wearier.
I guess the Chinese will figure this out also, after a few really good fires and explosions levels a few of their refineries. All we can hope for is a good old fashion depression to slow demand down; to slow it down enough to give them the time to put the pieces back on their antiquated junk.
At this point, it sort of looks like we are going to get it, and I hope it gets here while there is still something left to reassemble!
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5925 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:29 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
Eli wrote:
DantesPeak wrote:
This is certainly bad news on diesel supplies. It was recently discussed that the US might even send diesel to Europe because of short supplies there.
Ok I missed that story where is that at? That seems bad, isn't diesel and heating oil basically the same thing?
No specific news on this I could point to, just some comments from energy analysts.
Under IEA rules, if a diesel shortage in Europe develops, the IEA can call on the US to send it emergency supplies - although I have not heard any discussion of this.
Also Valero is fitting its Lake Charles refinery to send diesel to Europe, but that's not completed. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5447 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:29 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
shortonoil wrote:
So the idea here is that we can have a little more today and none tomorrow.
Seems like the whole bloated, festering system is run that way, no? The junkie analogy proves itself appropriate once again. Full speed ahead, into the wall or off the cliff. _________________ "Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young
Joined: Apr 05, 2005 Posts: 2477 Location: South of Atlanta
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:31 am Post subject: Re: Explosion Reported at Major US Refinery (Port Arthur)
My main worry right now is not that we keep having these small failures and problems. I worry that you have a big event. Something which takes out a significant unit for a very long time, if not forever.
I worry about a larger fire causing something very big to happen, along the lines of a Texas City fire. For those who dont know about that google it.
If we have something really big happen we will not recover,
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