‘Major Spill’ After Exxon Pipe Ruptures in U.S.
An Exxon Mobil crude oil pipeline ruptured near the town of Mayflower in the US state of Arkansas, spilling thousands of barrels of oil, the company said.
Exxon shut the 50-centimetre Pegasus pipeline, which carries crude oil from Pakota, Illinois, to the Gulf Coast, after the leak was discovered on Friday afternoon.
Exxon, which was hit with a $1.7m fine by regulators this week over a 2011 spill in the Yellowstone River, said a few thousand barrels of oil had been observed. [more]
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Related: Read more on the Keystone Pipeline decision and the two tar sands spills that occurred this week.
Photo Credit: (Reuters)
The spill is estimated to be at least 10,000 barrels in size. Pretty crazy stuff.
I have been lucky. Having the opportunity to do something like this is fantastic. It is fair to say I wanted to recover some of my self-esteem.Tony Hayward, former CEO of BP • In a New York Times profile, examining the daily life of the former BP executive, just over two years after he famously lamented his loss of life. Hayward now finds himself at the helm of Genel Energy, a drastically smaller oil company (currently worth about $3 billion on London’s stock market), and he hopes to redeem his image globally. source (via • follow)
[We are] very disappointed that this happened, and apologize that we are inconveniencing our neighbors.Chevron spokesperson Walt Gill • In an apology after the massive fire at the company’s Richmond, Calif. refinery. The company refines 240,000 barrels per day of oil at the refinery, and the fire is quite massive. We have comprehensive plans and procedures in place to respond to situations like the one we are facing. “We are working with all appropriate local authorities,” the company said in a statement to the press. “We will take all measures necessary to provide for the safety and security of our facilities and the surrounding community.” The facility last suffered from a fire of this nature in 2007. (more here)
Breaking: Huge fire at Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California. Residents told to close windows and stay indoors. This same refinery caught fire about 10 years ago.
Keeping an eye on this. @ProducerMatthew has been tweeting about this heavily in the past half-hor.
» Don’t start fracking in your backyard just yet: While increased instances of hydrofracking on (well, literally in) U.S. soil have helped decrease any reliance on oil from the Middle East — which only comprises 10% of our consumption anyway — the bigger help is increased fuel economy, among other energy efficiency measures being taken. Heck, the more energy-efficient our cars are, the less oil we need from anywhere.
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» That’s the first time any state’s average price-per-gallon has dropped below the $3 mark since days after the beginning of the Libyan revolution. Fighting began on February 15, 2011, and prices in South Carolina crossed the $3 threshold a few days later on February 19. While a 2.3 cent gap may not seem like much, analysts expect the prices to continue dropping, and millions of Americans will undoubtedly welcome financial relief of any kind — particularly on a commodity that many of us rely on heavily in our daily lives.
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Nigeria: A man covers his hands in crude oil during an anti-Shell protest after a spill at the Bonga oilfield. (EPA via Guardian)
That is a fascinating story told in a single photo. Here’s a Reuters story on the topic.
I want to make sure that as President, I can disrupt the oil monopoly… we need to use a diversity of products, like natural gas.Jon Huntsman, who also stated support for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline as a means of American energy independence. Natural gas mining has become controversial in recent years, over health and environmental concerns posed by “fracking,” the explosive means by which natural gas is harvested from the earth.
» What caused the increase? To put it simply, many analysts point to the civil war in Libya for inflating the price of gas, as it took 1 million barrels of oil out of the supply chain each day, raising the price of oil by $20 per gallon at its high point. The recent successes the rebels have had since NATO started its air strikes exactly six months ago tonight have helped to bring the prices down to more manageable levels. Seasonal factors are also at play, and with Labor Day behind us, gas prices should continue to decline through Christmas.
» And 42 votes is, obviously, not enough. The Senate GOP brought this vote to the floor, and as it lost comfortably by eight votes, they probably considered it doomed to fail from the get-go. As such, this looks like a show vote, less designed to impact policy (though I’m sure the GOP wouldn’t have minded getting it through) than to court political favor. As increased offshore oil drilling would have minor if any effect on the domestic gas prices (global market and all that), this bill serves two goals: make people think Democrats are keeping gas prices high, and remind big oil that despite recent talk of stripping industry subsidies, the Republican Party still has their back.