Incident Report

Subject:            Various News Reports         

Date of Email reporting Incidents:   Fri 25/01/2008

Report Detail:

USA - 3 SEVERELY BURNED IN FIRE

GILCREST – The fire at a disposal service complex was out by Thursday evening after crews had battled 20-foot high flames earlier in the day.
The fire started around 12:45 p.m. at the Conquest Disposal Service complex on a flat tank that had 720 barrels of an oil-water mixture on it. The plant is east of Gilcrest and south of Greeley in Weld County, near Weld County Roads 39 and 40.  The smoke from the fire could be seen from miles away. The Weld County Sheriff's Department says the three people were injured and taken to North Colorado Medical Center for severe burns. At least one of the victims had to be intubated. One of the victims is an employee of Conquest Oil, the company that owns the plant. The other two victims were truck drivers with other companies.  The victims were identified as 25-year-old Justin Raymer, 40-year-old Mark Speaker and 22-year-old Omar Saenz. Raymer is listed in critical condition, Speaker is listed in serious condition, and no information was released on Saenz's condition.  La Salle Fire Department crews spent hours putting water on the flames and by 3:30 p.m., no more flames or smoke could be seen coming from the plant.  When the oil is taken out of the ground, there are byproducts that include a water-oil mixture. That mixture is taken to locations like the plant to be separated.  Investigators say they are not sure what caused the fire.

Norway - StatoilHydro Mongstad refinery restarts after fire

OSLO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Norway's StatoilHydro  said on Thursday that its Mongstad oil refinery has restarted and is operating at about 75 percent of its 186,000 barrel-per-day capacity after a fire forced a shutdown on Wednesday."The refinery is back up and working at about 75 percent capacity," Mongstad spokesman Kaare Ness said. Ness said StatoilHydro was still working to assess the damage and hoped the refinery, which mainly exports to Europe, will be back at full capacity in roughly a week.  He said that one of the two reformer units at Mongstad, used to produce gasoline, was damaged in the fire and still out. Mongstad also has a catalytic cracker unit for refining gasoline components. The oil refinery at Mongstad, near the Norwegian city of Bergen on the North Sea coast, is owned by Mongstad Refining, in which StatoilHydro has a 79 percent stake and Royal Dutch Shell  21 percent. (Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa)

Iraq - Major fire spreads at Iraq's biggest oil refinery

BAIJI, Iraq (Reuters) - An explosion at a fuel storage tank caused a huge blaze at Iraq's largest refinery on Monday, injuring at least 36 workers, and the fire was spreading, witnesses said.  A Reuters cameraman at the Baiji refinery complex, some 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, said he had seen at least one dead body and had counted at least 36 others suffering from burns.  "This is the biggest fire I have ever seen at Baiji refinery. We have not had a fire like this before," said an engineer, employed at the plant since 2003, who spoke on condition of anonymity.  He said the explosion had started in a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) unit. Dozens of firefighting trucks converged on the scene from neighboring towns. The engineer said the fire was spreading after an initial explosion at a storage tank containing 5 million liters of fuel. A second engineer said a technical fault had started the fire. The refineries at Baiji in north-central Iraq have capacity of 310,000 barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and have been operating at less than full capacity due to power cuts and other problems including fires.In January 2007, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said the country was losing $1.5 billion annually from attacks and theft at Baiji, which is vital to the nation's economy 

USA - Blast at the Rocky Mountain Pipeline

SOUTH DAKOTA.- Workers at the Plains Rocky Mountain Pipeline System Terminal will be cleaning up and assessing damage Wednesday after an explosion Tuesday that rocked nearby businesses and produced a black plume of smoke that could be seen for miles. Authorities said there were no injuries in the explosion and fire at the terminal, at 3225 Eglin St. about a half-mile east of Ace Steel & Recycling south of Interstate 90 between exits 60 and 61. The fire was extinguished in about 30 minutes by Rapid City fire department crews, primarily with streams of water from two ladder trucks.  "Once we were able to set up master streams and get water on it, it went out fairly quickly," Capt. Mark Kirchgesler of the fire department said.  Immediately after the explosion, workers at the terminal hurried to move a tanker truck away from the fire and, apparently, to shut down portions of the piping nearby, witness Les Zwicker said. Zwicker was sitting in a break room in a business across the street from the terminal about 2:15 p.m., when "we heard a 'boom' and thought somebody was moving something upstairs. Then we all went outside, and it was pitch black over there."  The sight of orange flames flickering at the base of a tall plume of smoke caused traffic to slow on Interstate 90. Some vehicles lined up on the shoulder to watch as smoke drifted off for miles to the east and northeast. Kirchgesler said someone at the terminal told him that the fuel burning in the fire was probably gasoline or diesel fuel, or possibly a mixture.  The explosion apparently occurred as the tanker truck was loading or unloading fuel, he said. The fire was contained to a network of pipes separate from about a dozen above-ground storage tanks at the terminal. Damage seemed contained to that area, he said.  The fire burned near a few of small tanks but was extinguished before it could cause more serious and dangerous damage, Kirchgesler said.  The exact cause of the explosion and fire was under investigation by fire crews Tuesday afternoon; the inquiry likely will continue with company officials Wednesday, Kirchgesler said. Some people in businesses nearby said they heard an enormous boom when the explosion occurred. Dorene Talley at Ace Steel & Recycling said it appeared that a pumping station at the facility was on fire. Talley said that after the explosion, flames were shooting high in the air. According to Talley, someone who was "very brave" jumped in a truck with tanker trailer and moved it away from the fire. Elaine Pittmon works across the road from the fuel facility. Pittmon said the first big explosion at the facility rattled the windows and knocked pictures off the walls at K&D Appliance Service. A second smaller explosion followed shortly, she said. Pittmon watched firefighters arrive on the scene and move two tanker trucks away from a pumping station that was burning. "They responded very well and are doing an exceptional job," she said. Firefighters used a ladder truck to pour water on the fire, Pittmon said. Some neighboring businesses, including Black Hills Ammunition, were reportedly evacuated during the fire. The smoke could be seen from as far as downtown Rapid City. Mark Olson, division manager for Plains Rocky Mountain Pipeline System, said in a telephone interview about 3:45 p.m. that the company was still assessing the damage. "We're in the assessment stage. We're just glad the fire's out and nobody got hurt."  Olson said it appears the fire was concentrated near the additive rack, the area where additives are kept before being blended with the gasoline and other fuels.

Plains All American Pipeline Co. is the parent company of Rocky Mountain Pipeline Products, which operates the system of pipelines that includes the Rapid City terminal and tank farm.  The bulk of the diesel fuel, gasoline and aviation fuel in the Black Hills comes from the pipeline terminal east of Rapid City. The terminal is served by a 6-inch pipeline that runs from Casper, Wyo., to Rapid City.  Midway on the line, somewhere near Mule Creek Junction, Wyo., the pipeline system is fed by a smaller line from the Wyoming Refining Co. oil refinery in Newcastle, Wyo., to the Casper-Rapid City line.  It's unclear what effect the fire will have on fuel supplies or prices. Fuels produced in Newcastle are close enough to deliver by truck. And transport companies, from time to time, truck fuel to the Black Hills from Mitchell and other East River terminals. But that could push transportation costs higher, which could translate to higher prices at the pump.  Over the weekend, prices at most Rapid City stations nudged lower, to $2.849 for ethanol-blend fuels and $2.899 for regular. Some stations were as low as $2.769 for regular gasoline. Staff writers Andrea Cook, Dan Daly and Kevin Woster contributed to this report.

Africa - Agip pipeline in southern Nigeria hit by fire

LAGOS Thomson Financial - A major oil pipeline belonging to ENI SpA (NYSE:E) unit Agip caught fire and a tanker truck exploded in separate incidents in southern Nigeria, military and industry sources said. The oil pipeline at Omoku in Rivers state had been ruptured before it caught fire early today, the sources said. It was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the incident. Firefighters from Agip had put out the blaze. Meanwhile a fuel tanker exploded near Port Harcourt's main oil refinery, military spokesman Major Musa Sagir told Agence France-Presse. The cause of the blast was unknown.  The two incidents came barely one week after the most prominent militant group in the restive Niger Delta claimed responsibility for a series of attacks.  Last week, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it planted an explosive device that set a tanker ship on fire in Port Harcourt.  It also claimed responsibility for an attack on a senior port official in the oil city and vowed further operations against the oil industry and related sectors.