It's a mess in Port Arthur, TX

[TangoWhiskey]

Three vessels collided today, 450,000 gallons of crude have spilled, the port is being evacuated, etc.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6831977.html

http://www.12newsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11869139

(That'll buff right out)

Ship #1 and barge

Ship #2

 

[Doggtyred]

And somebody is likely no longer going to be a ships pilot in that port anymore..

 

[wsuffa]

TSA shoulda been on thier jobs, and it never would have happened...

 

[Skip Miller]

As they say, a collision at sea will ruin your whole day. Given the weights and momentums involved, and the potential for pertroleum cargo down there.... there is almost always enough heat generated to burn something. Everyone is very lucky no serious fire was involved.

-Skip

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I will have to see how three could collide, must have been tight quarters?
Henning's analysis?

 

[TangoWhiskey]

I will have to see how three could collide, must have been tight quarters?
Henning's analysis?

The articles led me to the impression that the collision of two pushed them into the third. The pictures I saw indicated it was more of a "river-sized" waterway.

And good news--the spill total has been revised downward.

The collision tore a hole in the tanker and about 40,000 gallons of crude oil into the ship channel.

The General Land Office says the spill was contained with oil booms.

The initial reports had almost 10 times that amount of crude spilled, so authorities appeared relieved at an afternoon press conference.

 

[Doggtyred]

I will have to see how three could collide, must have been tight quarters?
Henning's analysis?

Loss of steerage/power in a ship channel between Pleasure Island and the mainland. The tanker veered port in front of the oncoming barge/towboat, was impaled by barge, and then bounced off the moored cargo ship.

That portion of the ship channel is also co-located along the local segment of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which has heavy barge traffic.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.865656,-93.90358&spn=0.279864,0.547256&t=h&z=11

 

[kevin47881]

Glad all are alright.

As an aside, anyone want to take bets on the increase in price of a gallon of gasoline within the next few days?

 

[gkainz]

You're not implying that the event was - GASP! "staged"? as a price escalation excuse? Heaven forbid - that would NEVER happen ...

just kidding - but I agree that "any excuse is an opportunity". Saw an article the other day predicting price hikes, with the comment in-line about "even with a supply glut"

 

[Doggtyred]

You're not implying that the event was - GASP! "staged"? as a price escalation excuse? Heaven forbid - that would NEVER happen ...

just kidding - but I agree that "any excuse is an opportunity". Saw an article the other day predicting price hikes, with the comment in-line about "even with a supply glut"

A big fraction of refining of gasoline occurs in the mega-refineries of Port Arthur. Supply glut of oil means nothing if you cant process it.

 

[steingar]

A big fraction of refining of gasoline occurs in the mega-refineries of Port Arthur. Supply glut of oil means nothing if you cant process it.

Strangest thing of which I've ever heard. Clustering of important strategic resources.

 

[Clark1961]

Strangest thing of which I've ever heard. Clustering of important strategic resources.

Some of it is unintended consequences and some of it is economies of scale. As I understand it, no new refineries have been built in the US in the last 20 years or so and some folks blame environmental regs for that. NIMBY probably has as much to do with it.

As a result of the lack of new construction, some refineries have been "biggie" sized to service product demand. I think the refiners like it as a method to grow cash flow while maximizing the utilization of existing infrastructure. The end result is the system we have in which large portions of refining capacity are concentrated in a few locations. Baytown, and Texas City would be one place to start if someone wanted to really disrupt supplies. The west coast has a similar situation at Wilmington. Of course there are still numerous small refineries here and there about the country but they really can't cover for service interruptions at the "big guys."

 

[Doggtyred]

Strangest thing of which I've ever heard. Clustering of important strategic resources.

Spindletop is 20 miles away... one of the first mega-fields in Texas. Why disperse your refining capacity away from its abundant supply (or at least then-abundant supply).

There's a very large fraction of gasoline refining along the gulf coast because thats where the offshore oilfields (and tanker ports) are..

At a certain point, massive dispersion for rare events introduces its own level of inefficiency that outweighs the benefits of dispersion.

 

[wabower]

Shortages and price hikes can occur in many petro products. In the 90's we bought wide-spec poly pellets for 20 cents/lb. when all five of the world-wide plants were in production. One plant closed for refurb and the others were able to handle the necessary increases. Then the Houston plant burned, and the imbalance caused prices to quickly top 62 cents. Hard to gag down when sales are based on long-term contracts without cost escalators (that had never been needed in the past). They're in the contracts now.