Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Workers’ unsafe behavior causes most terminal accidents, expert says

More training, standards and evaluation of workplace performance are needed to prevent accidents at bulk liquid storage terminals that handle crude oil, chemicals and other products, a safety expert said Tuesday at an industry conference.

Kevin Smith, senior director of downstream health, safety and environment for Murphy Oil, told attendees to the International Liquid Terminals Association Operating Conference & Trade Show that understanding how accidents happen is key.

“We need to understand the hazards in our workplace,” Smith said, during the conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. “We need to change our behavior. We need to educate the workforce.”

Outlier: Workplace deaths drop, except in oil industry

Eighty percent to 95 percent of accidents are triggered by unsafe behavior, Smith said. Some hazards remain harmless unless one or two combine and are triggered by unsafe behavior, he added.

That can give employees a false sense of security, a sort of positive reinforcement that their unsafe behavior can sometimes go without consequences.

“Accidents happen because there are inherent hazards in the workplace,” Smith said. “People take shortcuts, work unsafely. Negative behavior is reinforced by positive outcomes, there is a reward.”

Tank explosions: Federal investigators urge Texas to tighten safety rules

But Smith said vigilance is extremely important at all times to promote safety in the workplace, especially when dealing with dangerous materials.

“We can’t change the flammable nature of gasoline,” Smith said. “We can change the unsafe behavior of people.”

The ILTA represents companies that operate bulk liquid storage terminals in 49 countries. The terminals are located in ports and along rivers, canals and pipelines.

In addition to crude oil and chemicals, products handled include renewable fuels, fertilizers, vegetable oils and other food grade materials.


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Posted: 2013-02-17, 3:00PM PST

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Texas Petro Index shows stability, modest growth

Power lines and pump jacks dot the horizon in the Permian Basin just west of Midland, Texas.

Stable crude oil prices, modest gains in drilling rig counts and a growing number of drilling permits added up to modest growth in Texas oil and gas activity as measured by the Texas Petro Index for the first four months of the year.

The index, a measure of upstream economic indicators prepared for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers by economist Karr Ingham, shows that oil and gas exploration and development has stabilized at relatively high levels, while sustaining modest growth.

Ingham said the index indicated activity “languishing” in the latter half of 2012, after overheated growth during the first half of last year.

It grew in each of the first four months of 2013, he said.

“Crude prices appear to have stabilized in the $90 per barrel range,” he said in a statement. “The rig count has posted modest increases, and the number of drilling permits issued through April exceeded the record-setting pace of 2012.”

There aren’t “dramatic month-to-month increases,” he said. “However, the outcome is that aggregate oil and gas exploration and production activity have stabilized at a very high level.”

It’s dangerous to assume the stability will last, Ingham said. “But it is the case for now.”

Among the factors Ingham considered for April:

 Crude oil production in Texas totaled 57.6 million barrels, 8.5 percent more than in April 2012. Wellhead prices averaged $88.33 per barrel, 11.2 percent below April 2012 prices. Production gains failed to offset the lower prices, decreasing the value of Texas-produced crude by $5.1 billion. Texas natural gas output was 642.5 billion cubic feet, a year-over-year monthly decline of 1.5 percent. Prices averaged $3.90 per thousand cubic feet, 88.6 percent more than in April 2012, more than offsetting the production decline to boost the value of Texas-produced gas to $2.5 billion.

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Posted: 2013-02-17, 2:30PM PST

Edited: 2013-02-17, 2:33PM PST

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Industry poll finds broad public support for Keystone XL

Crewmen work a site for TransCanada's Keystone XL project in Wood County, Texas. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

Eight of 10 U.S. voters believe the Keystone XL pipeline is in the nation’s best interest, according to a  nationwide poll released Tuesday.

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive for the American Petroleum Institute, a major supporter of the pipeline that would ferry oil sands crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

According to the phone survey of 1,000 registered voters, 77 percent believe the pipeline would strengthen America’s natural security and slightly more — 85 percent — believe it would be a boost to the nation’s economic security.

Related story: British Columbia decides against pipeline to Canada’s west coast

While support was slightly higher among Republican voters, Cindy Shild, API’s downstream operations senior manager, noted broad support across all political parties.

“The American people support it — people of all political points of view, politicians from both parties and national opinion leaders,” Shild said in a conference call with reporters. “We’ve witnessed firsthand the public’s strong support in the rallies we’ve held and in poll after poll that’s been conducted.”

The State Department is conducting a final environmental review of TransCanada’s proposed pipeline, after  concluding last year that Alberta’s oil sands will be developed even if Keystone XL isn’t  built.

Under a 9-year-old executive order, the State Department is tasked with determining whether the $5 billion project is in the “national interest.” If any one of eight separate federal agencies disagrees with State’s decision, a process would being that  would put the final verdict in President Barack Obama’s hands.

But a final decision is at least many months away, as the State Department slowly works its way through about 1.2 million public comments submitted on its draft environmental study of the pipeline. Late last month, the State Department released the first 100,000 of those public comments, with plans to post all of them on a weekly basis before reaching a final decision.

TransCanada Corp. first sought approval to build the border-crossing pipeline in 2005. While the northern, border-crossing section of the project is under review, the Calgary company has gone forward with construction of the southern leg of the pipeline in Oklahoma and Texas.

Environmentalists say that Keystone XL could contribute to climate change by expanding the marketplace for Canada’s oil sands crude. Because the bitumen in Canada’s oil sands is harvested through mining and energy-intensive steam-assisted techniques, it may have a higher carbon footprint than conventional crude.

But pipeline advocates reject opponents’ assertions that diluted bitumen from Canada is significantly dirtier than the crudes from Venezuela and other nations that it would likely displace in Gulf Coast refineries.


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