October 18, 2012:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Local air quality officials have approved a new plan to more tightly monitor pollution near refineries after gaps in the system were exposed during a fire at Chevron's Richmond refinery. The Contra Costa Times reports (http://bit.ly/R5uuwU ) that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District approved the plan at its meeting Wednesday. The new strategy sets an 18-month timetable for creating a new rule to more accurately measure toxic air pollution from refineries. The move comes after the Aug. 6 fire that destroyed a crude unit at Chevron's Richmond refinery and sent billowing black smoke into the air. Thousands of nearby residents flooded local hospitals complaining of breathing and eye irritation problems. Jack Broadbent, the district's executive director, says the new plan will "significantly" enhance monitoring of the facilities.

By SFGate

October 18, 2012:

Finding a suitor for Petroplus Holding AG’s Petit-Couronne oil refinery is complicated, according to French Labor Minister Michel Sapin, after Netoil Inc. said it would table a new offer with Korean partners. “It’s not easy because someone just can’t become a refiner,” Sapin said today on France Inter radio. “We can’t just get anyone to come and refine crude.” A court in Rouen two days ago placed the 154,000 barrel-a- day plant into liquidation after bids by Alafandi Petroleum Group and Netoil were rejected. Petroplus, once Europe’s largest independent refiner, has borne the brunt of falling margins due to overcapacity and weak demand that led to its collapse earlier this year. Nov. 5 has been set as the deadline for new offers for Petit-Couronne or the refinery will be shuttered. That would leave France with eight working oil refineries compared with 24 in 1977. Netoil has decided to make a new offer for the refinery before that deadline, according to a joint statement late yesterday from the company and unions. Representatives from Korean partners who will “finance the modernization of the refinery” as well as a partner who has signed a tolling contract will appear before the court, the statement said. Unions have said about 500 workers may lose their jobs at the refinery and 2,000 more are at risk in the region should the plant shut down for good.

Necessary Guarantees

APG and Netoil “didn’t respond to questions from the court to show their financial and technical capacities,” Petroplus Raffinage Petit-Couronne, who represent the management, and the administrators said in an Oct. 16 statement. The court said Netoil didn’t provide “necessary guarantees” that operations and worker rights can be continued, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said in an Oct. 16 statement. Netoil and the unions said in yesterday’s statement that these questions will be addressed before Nov. 5. Petroplus, once Europe’s largest independent refiner, sought to offload its plants after filing for insolvency in January. Three were sold to trading companies that will keep them operating, while the U.K.’s Coryton site will be converted into storage.  Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), the prior owner of Petit-Couronne, ran the site from June under a six-month tolling arrangement in which it supplies crude and takes ownership of the products. Unions have fought to keep it open by lobbying the state to find a buyer. Netoil planned to upgrade the plant and keep it operating, Chairman Roger Tamraz said Aug. 9. While Europe doesn’t need extra capacity, local suppliers would benefit, he said, citing the proximity to Paris and Charles De Gaulle airport. French margins also began to recover recently as excess supply was cut.

By Bloomberg

October 18, 2012:

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A second man who was injured in an explosion at an Oklahoma oil refinery has died. A University of Oklahoma Medical Center spokesman says Russell Mann of Davis died Tuesday at the Oklahoma City hospital. Mann was injured and Billy Smith of Pauls Valley was killed Sept. 28 when a boiler exploded at Wynnewood Refining Co., owned by CVR Energy Inc. of Sugar Land, Texas. CVR officials have said the explosion occurred as the boiler was being restarted following scheduled maintenance and upkeep, which resumed the following day. CVR issued a statement saying an investigation into the blast continues and CEO Jack Lipinski expressed "heartfelt sympathies" to all affected by the blast. A U.S. Department of Labor spokeswoman also said an investigation is ongoing and declined further comment.

By SFGate

October 18, 2012:

WOODS CROSS, Utah – The Holly Frontier Refinery is still cleaning up the mess left behind from an oil leak in August when more than 8,000 gallons of oil spewed into the air, coating buildings, cars and some property in a mobile home park close by. More than 400 residents and businesses in Woods Cross have filed damage claims against the refinery since the accident, but of the claims, the company says only 25 cases still need to be resolved. “The clean up is well underway and almost completed. We’ve had about a little over 400 people that we’ve been in contact with who have had some kind of oil at either their home or business,” says Conrad Jenson, an engineering manager at the refinery. Jenson says the company has spent about half a million dollars in clean up efforts so far. Matthew Sweson, a resident in the mobile home park impacted by the oil leak said, “They took full responsibility.” Bonnie Keloa echoed the same sentiment, saying, “They came over and inspected and found it themselves and they gave us a gift card for what it is was. It turned out to be a good gift card, too. We were very satisfied with the way they took care of it.”

“They seemed to be pretty much on it. They came the night it happened, they handed out flyers saying if there was anything that needed to be taken care of, it would be taken care of,” said Bill Day, another resident in the area. The refinery says while they work on resolving the rest of the damage claims, they also want to make sure they figure out exactly what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again. “The thing that was missed was the possibility of could there be water in the tank actually even though the tank had been well over 112 degrees,” said Jenson. Jenson said the company thinks build up from pressure in a holding tank may have caused the tank to rupture.

By Fox13 News

October 18, 2012:

State-owned oil and gas company PetroSA, which reported a R1.4 billion profit for the 2012 financial year to MPs yesterday, sent signals that a multibillion-rand crude oil refinery in the Eastern Cape – likely to source Venezuelan supplies – was on track. Appearing before the national assembly energy portfolio committee, chief executive Nosizwe Nocawe Nokwe-Macamo reported that the net profit was 54 percent up on the previous financial year, despite material impairments in two subsidiaries totalling R1.6bn. Nokwe-Macamo, replying to questions about the crude oil refinery dubbed Project Mthombo, said feasibility studies would be completed in December. She did not believe the project would be moved from its envisaged site at Coega outside Port Elizabeth, even though there was no pipeline running from the area. “There is a pipeline in Durban,” she said, urging journalists not to dwell on the issues of how the refined products would be transported. However, it was understood that it was envisaged that this would be shipped from Coega to the Durban harbour to be piped inland. The costs of the project were not provided but previous Department of Energy estimates put it at more than R40bn, but that was without the required connecting infrastructure and possible power plant feeder. Avhapfani Tshifularo, the executive director of the SA Petroleum Industry Association, said he could not comment on PetroSA’s Project Mthombo. Kevin Hustler, the chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Bay Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged that there were some “challenges” facing the project, these included the fact that Venezuelan crude was “hard” compared with other imports, but the chamber was “behind the placement of the project here in the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ)”.

He said a stakeholder group – including the local university, the department, the chamber, the Coega Development Corporation and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro council – was involved in driving the project. Nokwe-Macamo noted that there would be a need for a “takeoff” of power from Eskom in the area – with the possibility that the company would be urged to build a power station in the area – but department sources said that an overseas investor might be interested in establishing a combined cycle gas turbine in the area. The Coega IDZ reported that PetroSA had signed a joint study agreement with the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) and concept studies would lead “to refinery configuration” by the end of the year. “This will be followed by feasibility studies with Sinopec, which will prepare Mthombo for approval.” It said Mthombo was key to the development of South Africa’s liquid fuels sector. Hustler said that by January it was hoped there would be “firm commitments” to the project. Meanwhile, ID MP Lance Greyling noted that Auditor-General Terence Nombembe had reported R2.5bn in “material impairments” for losses sustained by PetroSA Egypt and PetroSA Equatorial Guinea over the last two years. He said PetroSA had engaged in failed gas and oil exploration foreign ventures when it should have focused on building the local projects. Chief financial officer Nkosemntu Gladman Nika explained that companies abroad were subsidiary companies. Their financial operations had been ring fenced. This was like giving one’s son a loan to study, but when he graduated and found that he could not find a job, the father wrote off the amount.

By iol.co.za