September 3, 2012:

Nigerian oil and gas firm Orient Petroleum said it would begin operating a new refinery in south-eastern Anambra state by the end of next year which will process an initial 20 000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. Nigeria is among the world's top 10 crude oil exporters but has to import most of its refined product needs due to the dilapidated state of its refineries. Previous efforts to build new refineries have often been delayed or cancelled. Africa's biggest oil producer currently has a theoretical refining capacity of 445,000 bpd from its four plants but they process around 30 percent of this amount, oil industry sources have said. "Our expectation is that the refinery will be up and running by the end of next year," Orient Chairman Emeka Anyaoku said at the inauguration of the project. "We expect that by the end of next year we should be refining 20,000 barrels of oil everyday and gradually after that we will build up to 35 000 then 55 000 and possibly higher." Orient is exploring for oil in Anambra state, which sits north of the main oil producing Niger Delta region, but there have been no official oil reserve figures published.

The company's website said it will refine crude oil produced from Anambra state and Brass River oil, which is currently pumped from fields operated by Italian firm Eni.

By Reuters

September 3, 2012:

PARAGUANA, Venezuela – Against a smoke-blackened skyline of blazing fuel storage tanks, residents who lived alongside Vene-zuela’s biggest oil refinery wandered through what looked like a war zone for days. As a gas leak seeped around the tanks soon after midnight last Friday, shimmering slightly in the dark, people in the slum across the street from the Amuay facility were either asleep, or outside chatting with neighbors. Then the sky split open. The explosion damaged 1,600 homes, officials said late on Saturday after a week-long recovery effort on the Paraguana peninsula, by the Caribbean sea in western Venezuela. Some were reduced to their concrete foundations. The blast also shattered a National Guard barracks even closer to the tanks. Forty-two people were killed in the global oil industry’s worst accident for 15 years. But the problems for the residents of the poor Al Primera and La Pastora districts were far from over. As the inferno blazed for four days in the giant tanks, threatening more blasts, gangs of robbers roamed some areas, breaking into the less-damaged homes before carrying away fridges and televisions. “My children asked me, what will we do with a collapsed house? With all the effort that we put into our home, then overnight it’s been reduced to this,” said Mabel Serrano, 30, who stayed in the rubble for three days before deciding to abandon the smashed structure.

In a slow-motion exodus, they picked up and left this week along with other families who lived on their road, loading their belongings onto trucks provided by state oil company PDVSA. As they crunched through broken glass, carrying boxes and appliances, teams of firefighters were aiming spumes of foam at the storage tanks, which continued to belch flames and columns of thick black smoke into the air.

On Monday, the fire spread to a third tank.

Squatting near the large cylindrical storage tanks are smaller, spherical tanks holding especially volatile natural gas liquids. They have their own cooling system, but across the country people winced as they watched news footage of the flames appearing to creep closer to them.

‘ACCEPT REALITY’

Many visitors were scared, but some of those living in neighborhoods near the world’s second-biggest refinery complex were more resigned, guarding their homes amid the rubble. “We have to accept reality. Emissions formed, and a gas bubble was produced because there was no breeze. Everything is risky,” said one worker from Amuay’s gas units who lost the roof of his home in La Pastora. He asked that his name not be used. Others are less sanguine about the incident, which has taken on political ramifications just weeks before an Oct. 7 election in which President Hugo Chavez is running for another six-year term. Opposition critics and union officials have taken PDVSA to task, saying the company failed to carry out essential maintenance work nor improve safety standards following a string of accidents and unplanned outages in recent years. Chavez has angrily rebuffed allegations that PDVSA might have been at fault, but promised a full investigation. He visited those injured in the blast in hospital two days after the explosion, and spoke at an emotional mass held to honor the almost 20 National Guard troops who were killed. Chavez’s opponent, state governor Henrique Capriles, has opted to limit his comments about the incident, leery of repeating the same old charges of PDVSA mismanagement during a national tragedy.

By Reuters

September 3, 2012:

President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Ministry of Finance to set up an inter-ministerial committee to fashion out modalities for raising financial support for indigenous oil companies to bring in modular refineries.  This support will be for firms that are ready to invest, not only in production but also in refining to add value to the crude oil and gas produced  locally before exporting in order to generate employment for the youth and earn more revenue for the country, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison- Madueke, has  said. Alison-Madueke, who stated this at Aguleri-Otu during the inauguration of Orient Petroleum Plc’s Anambra River Production Facility in Anambra State, the first oil production from an inland basin in Nigeria, pledged government’s support for indigenous oil companies  willing to invest in every area of the value chain of the oil and gas sector.  She expressed satisfaction with the project, explaining that the significance of the event was not just in the discovery and production of oil from an inland basin but in the fact that the feat was achieved by an indigenous company. The Petroleum minister said, “This shows the way we want to go in the industry; we want to encourage more indigenous oil companies to emulate Orient Petroleum Resources in investing not just in production but also in refining.

“We are working with the Ministry of Finance to set up an inter-ministerial committee to work out ways to give financial support to indigenous companies to bring in modular refineries.” The Managing Director of Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, Mr. Nnaemeka Nwawka, who spoke earlier, had explained the challenges the company faced in raising funds for the projects, adding that banks had not been too keen in funding the refinery project, which is capital intensive. He said it was the financial challenge that drove the company into developing its Oil Prospecting Leases 915 and 916, first to guarantee crude supply to the refinery, which he said would be completed by 2013. In the same vein, Reuters had quoted the Chairman, Orient Petroleum, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, as saying that, “Our expectation is that the refinery will be up and running by the end of next year. “We expect that by the end of next year, we should be refining 20,000 barrels of oil every day and gradually after that we will build up to 35,000 then 55,000 and possibly higher.”

Nigeria is among the world’s top 10 crude oil exporters but has to import most of its refined product needs due to the dilapidated state of its refineries. Previous efforts to build new refineries had often been delayed or cancelled. The country currently has a  refining capacity of 445,000 bpd from its four plants but the refineries process around 30 per cent of this amount. Orient is exploring for oil in Anambra state, which sits north of the main oil producing Niger Delta region, but there have been no official oil reserve figures published.

By Punchng.com

September 3, 2012:

Orient Petroleum and Gas said it would begin operating a new refinery in Anambra state by the end of next year which will process an initial 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. Nigeria is among the world’s top 10 crude oil exporters but has to import most of its refined product needs due to the dilapidated state of its refineries. Previous efforts to build new refineries have often been delayed or cancelled. The country has a theoretical refining capacity of 445,000 bpd from its four plants but they process around 30 percent of this amount, oil industry sources have said. “Our expectation is that the refinery will be up and running by the end of next year,” Orient Petroleum Chairman Emeka Anyaoku said at the inauguration of the project. “We expect that by the end of next year we should be refining 20,000 barrels of oil everyday and gradally after that we will build up to 35,000 then 55,000 and possibly higher.” Orient is exploring for oil in Anambra state, which sits north of the main oil producing Niger Delta region, but there have been no official oil reserve figures published.

The company’s website said it will refine crude oil produced from Anambra state and Brass River oil, which is currently pumped from fields operated by Italian firm Eni.

By Channelstv.com

September 3, 2012:

RICHMOND -- Saying oil executives were "contaminating the children of Richmond," activists angered by the Aug. 6 Chevron refinery fire gathered Monday morning at a peaceful rally and march and called for the energy industry to be nationalized. About 50 people gathered at Washington Park in Point Richmond before marching about half a mile to the refinery's gate on Castro Street. Among the protesters was Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist who is the Peace and Freedom Party's vice-presidential nominee, running with presidential candidate Roseanne Barr. Sheehan noted that "Exploitation of Workers Day" might be a more apt name for Monday's Labor Day holiday, saying the group was there in solidarity with workers at Chevron and around the world. "No accountability will happen until we force it to happen," Sheehan said. "Our interests obviously aren't the interests that the people in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., care about." Several speakers pointed to the large profits of Chevron and other oil companies and asked why more wasn't spent on safety both for workers and communities that are home to the refineries. "Why can't they invest in their refineries to make them run properly?" said Steve Zeltzer of United Public Workers for Action. "This is an issue for working people around the world." Zeltzer called for Chevron to build and fund a free public hospital for the people of Richmond and said the executives and managers should be criminally prosecuted. "In North Richmond, we are on the front lines of chemical exposure on a daily basis," said Henry Clark, founder of the West County Toxics Coalition. "As we go forward ... we need to stay engaged and hold our elected officials accountable and hold Chevron accountable."

Police accompanied the protesters as they marched under Interstate 580 and to a refinery entrance, where security guards were standing by. The protest was peaceful from start to finish, and no one was arrested. A spokeswoman for Chevron said after the protest that the company's goal was to prevent accidents like the Aug. 6 fire from happening again and that officials were working with investigators to pinpoint its cause.

By MercuryNews