Chevron Eyes Houston Ship Channel for 2nd US Gulf Refinery
Chevron Corp wants to build or buy a refinery along the U.S. Gulf Coast to process crude oil from its rapidly growing Permian Basin operations, a senior executive said on Tuesday.The company would like to have refining operations on the Houston Ship Channel, in the western part of the U.S. Gulf, to complement an existing eastern Gulf refinery in Mississippi that makes lubricants and other materials, Pierre Breber, Chevron's head of downstream and chemicals, said."Something on the ship channel side could make a lot of sense for our company…
Are They In Synch?
Recent spills in the Gulf of Mexico have demonstrated how tried and true oil spill recovery has combined with chemical dispersant technology to combat oil spills. On October 1, 1998, when a slick tracked to a crude oil pipeline leak off Louisiana's Gulf Coast was detected, the ready forces of oil responders were immediately activated. Along with a small armada of oil spill response vessels (OSRVs) hurrying to the site of the spill traced to a Chevron pipeline, a plane loaded with Corexit 9527 dispersant was deployed to shrink the growing oil slick estimated to be 37 kilometers long. By day two of the spill, dispersant operations had successfully shrunk the slick enabling OSRVs to contain the oil and finish the cleanup job.
Pollution Response in Katrina's Wake
The Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Louisiana are working together with local industries to recover spilled oil and mitigate further environmental damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Coast Guard Sector New Orleans Federal On Scene Coordinator has established a forward operating base in Baton Rouge, La., to coordinate the pollution response efforts. The Murphy Oil Corporation, near Chalmette, estimated 16,000 barrels of oil have been discharged, with the vast majority contained within the existing secondary containment unit located on refinery property. Oil recovery operations are currently on going. During the hurricane, an unknown quantity of oil escaped the secondary containment and affected the surrounding neighborhoods.
