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I will take what feels like bait and ask, who is setting fire to US energy and food facilities (if anyone). I acknowledge it could just be coincidence. On the e

I will take what feels like bait and ask, who is setting fire to US energy and food facilities (if anyone). I acknowledge it could just be coincidence. On the energy side, here's a list I saw recently: July 9, 2022- ONEOK natural gas plant explosion (Medford, OK) July 7, 2022- Energy Transfer pipeline explosion (Wallis, TX) Jun. 27, 2022- Petro Star refinery explosion, (VALDEZ, AK) Jun. 8, 2022- LNG natural gas plant explosion (Freeport, TX) Apr. 24, 2022- Valero refinery explosion (Meraux, LA) Apr. 14, 2022- Haven Midstream gas plant explosion (Haven, KS) Mar. 27, 2022- ExxonMobil oil refinery explosion (Billings, MO) Feb. 21, 2022- Marathon Petroleum refinery explosion (GARYVILLE, LA) Dec. 23, 2021- ExxonMobil plant explosion (Baytown, TX) June 23, 2021- Calpine Natural Gas Generation Plant explosion (Corpus Christi, TX) July 22, 2021- Northern Natural Gas explosion (Ellsworth County, KS) Feb. 18, 2021- Natural Gas pipeline explosion (Ames, OK)

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ciguy 4y ago
This is pretty meaningless without comparing rates of fires/explosions from prior years. And even if it's higher than before it could easily be attributed to newer or less experienced staff or understaffing due to covid etc...
- WJW 4y ago
  I agree, 11 mishaps per year does not seem all that much compared to the total size of the oil&gas industry in the USA.
  - ruined 4y ago
    for reference, a quick duck duck going shows there are currently about 130 refineries, 210 pipelines, and countless wells and storage and transport facilities all over the country. i could not confirm a cause for any of the incidents posted by OP but it seems totally reasonable that there could be a dozen or so accidents within the first half of this year. it is unlikely that we have entered the cool zone unnoticed
- greggsy 4y ago
  Additionally, never attribute malice when poor maintenance that which is adequately explained by poor maintenance scheduling and safety protocols.
jeffbee 4y ago
bsder 4y ago
Were there any of these in California, too? Otherwise, I'd attribute it to lax oversight. All of those states are pretty lax towards their petroleum industry oversight. Texas, in particular, has a history of spectacular explosions (not just in petroleum) because of regulatory failures.
- vondur 4y ago
  It seems refineries here in SoCal tend to catch fire fairly often too.
IAmGraydon 4y ago
I would like to know how this compares to other years as well, but I agree - it's beginning to look very strange indeed. As far as I can tell, we have not heard a cause for any of these, just that they're under investigation. Surely someone at the top must be looking into this.
miketery 4y ago
Also how about the highly coordinated 2013 attack on a substation in California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf_sniper_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf_sniper_attack
- missedthecue 4y ago
  "Highly coordinated" seems more like a drunk drive-by
oogali 4y ago
I'm going to speculate that the 2022 refinery incidents are coincidence. US refineries are operating at or close to maximum capacity in response to high gasoline prices. You can't open a new one in any short amount of time, so the operators are trying to squeeze as much capacity as they can from that stone. It's possible that the operating headroom that they believed they had is turning out to be insufficient for current, sustained production levels.
audiometry 4y ago
There is insufficient refinery capacity in the USA, so they’re running at very high utilization rates. Pushing these high temperature, high pressure upgrading units to the limit, so not surprising there are accidents. Also I’d say every year there are refinery unit fires and blow ups. (One of the sources of current refinery capacity limitation is that a refinery on the east coast irreparably blew up a couple years ago) Not saying that Russians aren’t blowing up our infrastructure. But I am saying the baseline accident rate is definitely not zero.

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ciguy 4y ago

This is pretty meaningless without comparing rates of fires/explosions from prior years. And even if it's higher than before it could easily be attributed to newer or less experienced staff or understaffing due to covid etc...

WJW 4y ago
I agree, 11 mishaps per year does not seem all that much compared to the total size of the oil&gas industry in the USA.
- ruined 4y ago
  for reference, a quick duck duck going shows there are currently about 130 refineries, 210 pipelines, and countless wells and storage and transport facilities all over the country. i could not confirm a cause for any of the incidents posted by OP but it seems totally reasonable that there could be a dozen or so accidents within the first half of this year. it is unlikely that we have entered the cool zone unnoticed
greggsy 4y ago
Additionally, never attribute malice when poor maintenance that which is adequately explained by poor maintenance scheduling and safety protocols.

jeffbee 4y ago

bsder 4y ago

Were there any of these in California, too? Otherwise, I'd attribute it to lax oversight. All of those states are pretty lax towards their petroleum industry oversight. Texas, in particular, has a history of spectacular explosions (not just in petroleum) because of regulatory failures.

vondur 4y ago
It seems refineries here in SoCal tend to catch fire fairly often too.

IAmGraydon 4y ago

I would like to know how this compares to other years as well, but I agree - it's beginning to look very strange indeed. As far as I can tell, we have not heard a cause for any of these, just that they're under investigation. Surely someone at the top must be looking into this.

miketery 4y ago

Also how about the highly coordinated 2013 attack on a substation in California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf_sniper_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf_sniper_attack

missedthecue 4y ago
"Highly coordinated" seems more like a drunk drive-by

oogali 4y ago

I'm going to speculate that the 2022 refinery incidents are coincidence. US refineries are operating at or close to maximum capacity in response to high gasoline prices. You can't open a new one in any short amount of time, so the operators are trying to squeeze as much capacity as they can from that stone. It's possible that the operating headroom that they believed they had is turning out to be insufficient for current, sustained production levels.

audiometry 4y ago

There is insufficient refinery capacity in the USA, so they’re running at very high utilization rates. Pushing these high temperature, high pressure upgrading units to the limit, so not surprising there are accidents. Also I’d say every year there are refinery unit fires and blow ups. (One of the sources of current refinery capacity limitation is that a refinery on the east coast irreparably blew up a couple years ago) Not saying that Russians aren’t blowing up our infrastructure. But I am saying the baseline accident rate is definitely not zero.