The plausible deniability answer: Well, they were just restarting everything, and clearly they had some kinks to work out.
The tinfoil answer: Someone really didn't want those to start back up, did they?
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I will say that restarting that shit after being dormant is a massive process not just turn a switch and everything goes back on. So it could be an accident and they'll just get over it and keep starting up.
When was the last time an 'accident' like this happened? How frequent do these 'accidents' happen?
It happens fairly often. As said above startup is typically a long complex process. Also everything we deal with can burn, and a lot of it can kill you. We operate at extremely high pressures and temps in quite a few units.
Also these companies dont do the best maintenance and the units are really old and worn out.
I have been doing this for 20 plus years. I operate aboute 160,000 bpd capacity everyday.
But arent refinery and drilling operations completely separate? And wouldnt the refinery ops be in a different location than the actual drilling? And just because the drilling had stopped and needed to be restarted would the refinery have been shut down? Refinerys dont require Montana oil to operate. There is a refinery in Detroit and the last I looked there was no drilling going on. Many locales have refinerys to meet local needs.
Thanks for this insight. Its unfortunate they dont or cant keep up with maintenance.
Yeah many of the safety systems just end up mitigating the damage and can't act fast enough to prevent every accident completely. I remember working on boiler controls and it had less than 7 seconds to try and shut it down from the time a problem was detected until rapid self-disassembly occurred.
20 years? Then you know the importance of torquing key flanges, especially normally hot ones, before startup after a long term outage. That part probably got axed from the scope or just simply overlooked. I’ve seen dangerous LOCs happen too often because that minute, yet essential, detail is overlooked.
dude, crude oil is full of volitile chemicals, off the top of my head, we make naptha, gasoline, natural gas, and proprane from it, just to name a few.
A lot of these aren't even processed, we just distill them off.
How frequently do we shut down oil production for an entire year? When was the last time that happened?
The Obama Administration. Kek.
They only do that if margins are terrible…. Or if a unit/plant is mothballed.
Things in the oilfield have an annoying tendency to blow up.you get used to it.
Lockout tag out
Yeah, it’s not a new process that must still be learned