Hmm...

Oh, how I was quite encouraged how oil has dropped $4USD per barrell over the last few days, with news of the US dollar continuing to strengthen (that would help lower oil prices more), and news that growth is slowing in China and India causing a lower consumption estimates (good!).

THEN THIS HAPPENS!

It's breaking news and I haven't even read Reuters article yet, but already I find it somewhat wierd at the timing!


snippets:
"local television reported that four people were killed in the blast"
"The BP refinery, the third largest refinery in the country, has a throughput of 470,000 barrels per day"
"One refinery expert said the site appeared to be part of the refinery used to make gasoline."

 

hmm...i forsee higher prices in the very near future

 

All the larger refiners have merged. So, many of the smaller refineries have been shut down. When we have a fire like this, they're gonna raise prices, "Because they can't meet the demand".

 

They said on foxnews tv a little bit ago that this would increase prices since this refinery puts out 3% of the nations gas. They said that the main reason of gas costs is that there only a few refineries and no one has any plans to build any new ones.
Story

 

Today a spokesman for the BP refinery stated " the explosion has not affected production". So, having said that today, someone will have to fabricate another lie tomorrow to explain why this will cause higher gasoline prices.

We all know that the consumers have paid for any and all of their (oil companies) mistakes since the beginning any way. In other words, when a tanker spills it's cargo a pipeline bursts or an explosion like the one in Texas happens, we the consumers pay in the long run. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to discount the loss of our clean environment or loss of lives in any way. It is just a matter of fact as to how things work in economics.

 

I watch the news last night and they said that a oil refinery cought of fire in Texas and they are saying it could raise gas prices more. Did anybody catch this on the news.

 

Well, you can tack on $0.50 to whatever gas price you have now. Here that means it'll be up to $2.60 / gallon.

And you can bet it wont be coming back down any time soon.

 

That would mean $3.03 here in the CA desert... aaahhh how we enjoy living far from cities...

 

I don't live too far from there and we are already seeing higher gas prices because of it.
thats the excuse they are using anyway.
It has also been reported that that part of the plant was not in use. makes you wonder.

 

It's just a big farse. They're looking for short term profits for shareholders, so they blow up part of an unused part of the refinery. That way they can gouge prices even more.

Monday I'm starting work on my ethanol fuel still.

 

The explosion was reported to be in a working area of the plant,(hence the explosion), that controls the addition of octains and additives to gasoline .

The oil and gas companies operating here which are all US owned but one contribute a percentage of their profits to a co op fund which is then used for
any spills or catastrophic production accidents and is controlled by an independant commitee of appointed citizens.

I do not know if this is also in place in the US but it works well here . There are emergency response spill units and industry trained personell located in each geographic area where production takes place to respond in minutes if something occours .

Even the environmental reclamation of a spill site is covered under this co op umbrella . I have taken the training required for both the response and the supervision of a clean up or reclamation though fortunately was required to respond only once so far in 12 years .

 

supposedly, a liquid propane tank overfilled whick caused the explosion. a friend of mine's dad and uncle worked at the plant, but they're fine.