National Bargaining: Greedy Oil Industry Forces Work Stoppage

Arrogant oil refiners concerned more about profits than the safety and workplace concerns of thousands of USW-represented oil workers forced the union to call an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike.

The industry, represented by Royal Dutch Shell, gave the USW no other option when it refused to bargain in good faith over a national contract even though the union was prepared to continue talking beyond the midnight deadline.

“Shell refused to provide us with a counter-offer and left the bargaining table,” International President Leo W. Gerard said. “We had no choice but to give notice of a work stoppage.”

The negotiations for a new national contract cover 30,000 USW-represented workers at over 230 facilities, including 65 U.S. refineries and dozens of oil terminals, pipelines and petrochemical plants.

Once bargaining broke down over the companies’ bad faith bargaining, strikes began on Feb. 1 at nine refineries and related facilities in four states that employ 3,800 workers and produce nearly 10 percent of the nation’s gasoline, diesel and other fuels

So the Unions do dimly comprehend “acceptable attrition rates” ?

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I don’t understand this question.

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Have they determined the cause of the Ohio refinery explosion last month?

Note that besides general discussion, specific causes are rarely publicized. Almost always, something was done wrong, or a required step not done. That is rarely made public.

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http://www.ogj.com/articles/2015/01/fire-suspends-processing-activities-at-ohio-refinery.html
01/12/2015
By OGJ editors

Husky Energy Inc., Calgary, temporarily has shut down operations at its 160,000-b/d Lima, Ohio, refinery following an explosion and ensuing fire that hit one of the plant’s processing units over the weekend.

The explosion, which occurred shortly after 6:00 a.m. CST on Jan. 10 in the refinery’s isocracking unit, sparked a subsequent fire that was contained by late morning and finally extinguished later that evening, according to a series of notices posted on Jan. 10 to Ohio’s Allen County Emergency Management Agency and Lima Police Department Twitter and Facebook accounts.

No injuries occurred as a result of the incident, and impacts at the refinery were limited to the area of the isocracker, Husky Energy said Jan. 12.

Other installations and units at the refinery, however, have been shuttered as a precautionary measure, the company said.

While plans are under way to resume operations at the refinery, which can maintain operations without the 25,000-b/d isocracking unit, Husky Energy said it expects production at the plant to be suspended for about a week.

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Husky began restarting units over the weekend
http://www.limaohio.com/news/business-news/151402749/Refinery-back-online
January 20, 2015

More than a week after a unit at the Husky Lima Refinery exploded, the refinery is beginning to ramp up production again.

At about 6 a.m. Jan. 10, an explosion of an isocracker unit at the refinery exploded, causing the area to shake many residents awake and startled.

Mel Duvall, Husky Energy representative, said the plant “began the process of restarting units at the refinery over the weekend” and the plant expects “operations to steadily ramp up through the week.”

A repair plan for the isocracker unit is in place, Duvall said, however there is no exact time frame as to when it will be completed. Duvall said the refinery is able to operate without the isocracker unit. What caused the explosion was still under investigation.

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Lessons from Ohio Plant Turned into Disaster Drill
http://www.firehouse.com/news/11849662/husky-lima-refinery-explosion-to-for-training
FEB 19, 2015

Experience is the best teacher, as far as the Allen County Local Emergency Planning Committee is concerned.

The committee is required to hold an exercise every year, going over various emergency scenarios and organizing the response. With the county recently going through an emergency situation with the January explosion at the Husky Lima Refinery, the committee determined that this incident will qualify as the yearly required exercise for the county at a meeting held Thursday.

According to Allen County EMA director Tom Berger, each exercise, whether it is a physical drill or just a tabletop exercise, is required to meet a certain number of criteria to be considered a qualifying exercise.

“You have to exercise certain capabilities throughout the year,” he said. “It could be public information, response, communications, or others.”

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Husky Energy shelves fall shutdown of Lima, Ohio, refinery
http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKBN0L11V320150128
Jan 28, 2015

Husky Energy Inc HSE.TO has shelved plans to shut its 155,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Lima, Ohio on Oct. 1 after postponing a crude flexibility project for two years, according to a person familiar with the facility’s operations.

The Calgary-based company decided to delay the $300 million project because of low crude oil prices and unexpected costs following an explosion this month, the person said late Tuesday. The project was originally designed to allow for the processing of up to 40,000 bpd of heavy crude feedstock from Western Canada starting in 2017.

Construction was expected to begin this year, starting with a 40-day refinery-wide shutdown starting on Oct. 1, but now the work is not expected to start to start until 2017, with a completion date in 2019, the source said.

The company has instead planned smaller-scale maintenance work for March 2016....

Earlier this month, the refinery’s 26,000-bpd isocracker unit, which uses hydrogen under high heat and pressure to increase the amount of motor fuels made from crude oil, was destroyed after an explosion at the refinery rocked nearby homes and caused a large fire. The unit needs to be replaced, which is expected to take months and limit production at the facility by roughly 25,000 barrels, the source said.

Workers who were assigned to the flexibility project have been redeployed elsewhere, including to rebuilding the isocracker unit, the source said.

The flexibility project involves work on the coker and processing units and will maintain the refinery’s ability to refine light crude oil. Since 2012, Lima has run over 60,000 bpd of Canadian crude, but only about 3,000 bpd of that would be particularly heavy with an API gravity below 30, according to U.S. government data.

The company, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is one of a number of Midwest refiners revamping operations to process more Canadian crude, which typically trades at a discount to U.S. grades.

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