Free Republic

WASHINGTON – U.S. oil refineries have an ongoing problem with accidents that turn deadly, losing four times as much money from such incidents than refineries in the rest of the world, according to an insurance company report obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The problem is highlighted by a deadly string of explosions, including one that killed four people Friday at a Tesoro Corp. refinery in Washington state, federal officials said. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration got so worried that in 2007 it started a major push for safety inspection in refineries and found more than 1,000 workplace...

Iran has selected the investors for developing five oil and gas refineries worth $11.7 billion, a report has announced. “The investors for setting up the five refineries, namely, the Persian Gulf Star, Hormoz, Pars Petrofield, Anahita and Khuzestan refineries, have been selected and it is predicted that the investors for the Caspian and Shariar refineries will be chosen in the near future,” Mehr news agency reported on Saturday. The five refineries for which investors have been chosen are already under construction. Moreover, Iran plans to build seven new oil and gas refineries worth $17 billion in a bid to diminish...

William Klesse, chief executive of oil refiner Valero Energy, is riled up. "I think cap-and-trade is ludicrous," he says. "The whole bill is a hidden tax." The so-called climate bill wending its way through the Senate aims to create a cap-and-trade regime covering emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If it passes in anything close to its current form, the bill would milk more carbon cash (payments to the government for the right to pollute) out of refiners than any other industry--somewhere between $30 billion and $110 billion a year. Valero, as America's biggest refiner (2.4 million barrels...

Energy: We balk at importing "dirty" oil from Canada, but others aren't so reluctant. Exempt as a "developing" nation from Kyoto-like agreements, China has decided to help Canada develop its energy-rich oil sands.The Financial Post reports that PetroChina International Investment Co. has struck a deal to buy a 60% interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s McKay River and Dover projects for $1.9 billion. China has been establishing energy beachheads around the world in its quest to keep its growing economy fueled. With possible conflict brewing between Israel and Iran, Beijing recognizes the need for reliable suppliers like Canada in an...

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.Oil may bubble up out of the ground, but gasoline does not. It's made in those ugly little NIMBY places called refineries we are loath to build anymore because we're too busy trying to save the Earth rather than our economy and American jobs. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 20% of our refining capacity in a single day and raised gas prices in a single...

Energy: A refinery burns in Texas while politicians fiddle in Washington. As oil goes over $100 a barrel, we don't have to worry about Hugo Chavez restricting supply. We have the Democrats in Congress to do that. Suppose you had a ton of money sitting in your bank account but you decided to max out your credit cards anyway. That's the energy policy of the United States as fashioned by the Democrat-controlled Senate. At these prices, we have a trillion dollars worth of oil sitting under a section of frozen tundra the size of Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C. We...

ExxonMobil Corp.'s Beaumont refinery is making plans to keep the plant going in case of a work stoppage by union labor at midnight Saturday. Oil workers nationally are bargaining with industry on a new contract. Local unions are bargaining with individual companies on some issues as well.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California's utilities, refineries and large factories must transform their operations to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new climate plan before state regulators. On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board was expected to adopt what would be the nation's most sweeping global warming plan, outlining for the first time how individuals and businesses would meet a landmark 2006 law that made the state a leader on global climate change. It would hold California's worst polluters accountable for the heat-trapping emissions they produce _ transforming how people travel, utilities generate power and businesses use electricity. At...

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

As falling gasoline prices squeeze refining profits, there are signs that refiners are ratcheting back production to pare losses. Gasoline output, which had been expanding as U.S. refineries came back online after hurricane-related shutdowns, dropped for the first time in weeks, according to data reported last week from the Department of Energy. Philadelphia refiner Sunoco Inc. said last week that it is shutting down a unit used in gasoline production at one of its refineries, though it declined to say why. "It makes no sense to be running [equipment] if they're not making any money," said Daniel Katzenberg, an analyst...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Mid-grade and premium gas runs about a dime to a quarter more than regular, if you can find it, but why does East Tennessee still have a premium on supplies of higher grade gasoline. You can blame the tailwinds of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which makes driving tougher, given how many more of our luxury cars or SUVs recommend premium fuel. But 'recommend' is the key word. "I need because I'm actually on empty." Lenoir City's Adam Smith's cruised himself out trying to find a pump that still has premium. Smith says, "I gotta get some...

Just heard it reported on MSNBC that "4 of the 17 Hoston area refineries that were taken off line, and were damaged to varying degrees by Ike, were "stiil down"". And it is these refineries that are the cause of the shortages in the mid eastern states, and that while on the downside of the hump, it will probably take another week to 10 days before supply lines are operating at normal capacity. But before then, Virginians should expect to see *their* gas stations reflect shortages for a brief time too.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At least 49 offshore oil platforms, all with production of less than 1,000 barrels a day, were destroyed by Hurricane Ike as it raced across the Gulf of Mexico, and some may not be rebuilt, the Interior Department said Thursday. It said in the latest hurricane damage assessment that the platforms altogether accounted for 13,000 barrels of oil and 84 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. There are more than 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf producing 1.3 million barrels of oil and 7 billion cubic feet of gas each day. Most remain shut down.

I cannot post the content, but here's the link to the Bloomberg news story: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aoNw5BZAk8Uc&refer=home Hopefully, this does not contravene the rules.

I don't want to tie up the hurricane thread with this vanity but does anyone know how to email or phone John McCain's upper campaign personnel? Hurricane Ike will affect the entire country in terms of fuel prices. McCain needs to go before the press NOW and announce that he WILL push through legislation authorizing new refineries NOT located in the GOM! (And pardon my language but to hell with the demonwits and the enviro wackos!) He needs to do it now and repeat it until Election Day. I will gladly write or phone him if someone can supply the...

Large and dangerous Hurricane Ike approaching the Upper Texas coast. Mandatory evacuations began in earnest Thursday as an estimated one million coastal residents headed inland. There were widespread reports of gas stations running out of fuel. The National Weather Service posted dire storm surge predictions of 20-25 ft storm surge along the coast and bay heads. Hurricane warnings covered a 400 mile swath of the Gulf of Mexico. Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do. Public Advisory Updated every 3 hours Discussion Updated every 6 hours Buoy...

To engineer a huge expansion in the chemicals business, the oil giant has put a woman in charge Nabilah Al-Tunisi was wrapping up an executive M.B.A. at Stanford University two summers ago when she got an urgent call from Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran. Pack your bags, she was told, and move to Houston. Al-Tunisi had just been put in charge of the engineering on a new $25 billion refinery and petrochemicals plant--the Ras Tanura Integrated Project. Ras Tanura, a tiny finger in the Persian Gulf, already has a 550,000-barrel-per-day refinery, Aramco's biggest. Under a joint venture with Dow Chemical...

How often have you heard Democrat politicians and liberal environmentalists argue that it makes no sense to drill for oil domestically because it will take at least ten years before we will see any of that oil? Let's put that old canard permanently to rest, shall we? According to a report from APRN, Alaska's Public Radio Network, it's been done in just half that time: Pioneer Natural Resources Company has brought a near-shore oil production unit on line. Pioneer spokesman Tadd Owens says the first barrel from the Oooguruk facility was sold yesterday. The unit lies northwest of the Kuparuk...

Thank you for contacting me about the escalating price of gasoline and U.S. dependence on foreign oil. I appreciate hearing from you. Currently, about 67 percent of the oil consumed in the U.S. is imported, 33 percent is produced here at home. Experts project that this trend will continue for many years. While it sounds logical to just say that if we produce more here at home, then we'll have to import less, in reality, if the only U.S. policy is to more rapidly deplete our own reserves by drilling for oil here at home, we will become more dependent...