ACID SPILL IN HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS

MAY 21, 2015

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS

County and state authorities were able to contain a chemical spill at the intersection of Highway 19 and Highway 75 in Huntsville on Wednesday morning.

Huntsville Emergency Management Coordinator John Waldo said the Walker County Hazmat Team was able to neutralize the acid-based substance by about 11 a.m. Authorities are unsure how the spill occurred, which forced the roadway in front of McCoy's Building Supply to be closed for a couple of hours.

"It must have fallen off a truck that was turning onto the on-ramp at Highway 19," Waldo said. "We got a call that there was a substance on the ground and that it was smoking. When we got there it was eating the asphalt.

"The Hazmat Team was able to neutralize the spill with a sodium-based powder off the truck."

The Texas Department of Transportation cleaned the spill and the area was cleared. The Huntsville Fire Department, Walker County Environmental Enforcement Office and the Walker County Emergency Medical Services also responded to the scene.

TEXAS LAWMAKERS HAVE SENT TO GOV. GREG ABBOTT A BILL MEANT TO STRENGTHEN REGULATIONS FOR STORING THE CHEMICAL FERTILIZER THAT CAUSED A DISASTROUS EXPLOSION AND FIRE IN WEST IN 2013

MAY 21, 2015

AUSTIN, TEXAS (AP)

Texas lawmakers have sent to Gov. Greg Abbott a bill meant to strengthen regulations for storing the chemical fertilizer that caused a fatal explosion in West in 2013.

The Senate gave final approval Thursday to requiring ammonium nitrate be kept separate from combustible material. The bill also grants the state fire marshal new powers to inspect businesses that store the chemical and issue citations.

Businesses would have 10 days to fix problems or face penalties.

Companies also would be required to give multiple state agencies and local emergency officials’ reports on what chemicals they store. The Texas Commission on Environment Quality would make those records public.

Fifteen people were killed in West explosion.

Coast Guard crews rescue 2 from grounded vessel near Port Angeles, Seattle

May 22, 2015

A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, Wash., prepares to hoist two people  east of Port Angeles, May 2. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Station Port Angeles.)

SEATTLE — Coast Guard crews rescued two people after their vessel ran aground three miles east of Port Angeles, Wash., Thursday.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles hoisted the two people and transferred them to awaiting EMS at the station with no reported injuries at 7:39 p.m.

The captain of the 32-foot recreational vessel Ella Bella contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound in Seattle via VHF-FM channel 16 around 5:15 p.m., stating that his vessel had lost power and was dragging anchor.

The man requested help contacting a vessel assist company to tow his vessel to shore. Watchstanders attempted to connect him with an available company, but representatives faced difficulties establishing communication with the vessel captain.

The Dolphin aircrew and a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium from Coast Guard Station Port Angeles launched to assist around 5:42 p.m. The RB-M crew was unable to approach the vessel due to shallow water depth.

At 5:57 p.m., the captain of Ella Bella called Coast Guard watchstanders again, stating that he and his passenger were abandoning ship into their life raft.
The two people on the life raft drifted toward shore. The Dolphin crew lowered their rescue swimmer to the beach and hoisted the two people into the helicopter.

“Our crews performed exceptionally during this dynamic case,” said Eric Cookson, command duty officer at Sector Puget Sound. “The shallow water depth and high winds made the rescue particularly challenging, but they were able to think on their feet and get the two people the help they required.”
Ella Bella remains hard aground three miles east of Port Angeles. The owner is working with a vessel assist company to remove the vessel.

There are no reports of pollution.

The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.

Weather on scene was reported to be 3-foot seas, 12 mph winds, an air temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit and a water temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oil Has Lowest Share of U.S. Transport Since Steam Age

Published in Oil Industry News on Friday, 22 May 2015
Oil has the lowest share of the U.S. transportation fuel market since the 1950s, when steam trains remained a common sight on American railroads.

While petroleum-based products still make up more than 90 percent of U.S. transport fuel demand, the share taken by ethanol, gas and electricity has more than doubled since 2000, highlighting the growing challenge to the dominance of oil in the world’s largest economy.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a report on Monday that non-petroleum sources of energy used in U.S transportation rose last year to 8.4 percent.

“The share of fuels other than petroleum for U.S. transportation has increased to its highest level since 1954, a time when the use of coal-fired steam locomotives was declining and automobile use was growing rapidly,” the U.S. EIA said.

The inroads that non-oil energy sources are making is one of the biggest changes in America’s automobile culture, immortalized by Hollywood movies such as Rebel Without a Cause and American Graffiti.

The dominant role oil plays in transport means that even small changes in market share are important for exporting nations such as Saudi Arabia and companies from Exxon Mobil Corp. to Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The changes also affect the world’s largest carmakers like General Motors Co.

Efficient Cars

As ethanol, natural gas and biomass make slow inroads, oil’s global share in transportation will drop to 85 percent by 2040 from 93 percent in 2013, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook.

More efficient cars, particularly in highly populated emerging countries such as China and India, are also weakening the link between oil and driving, the IEA said.

For the time being, non-oil energy sources still struggle to compete with gasoline and diesel because of high costs for electric cars.

“As in other fields, technology breakthroughs or a big fall in cost could lead to a more rapid uptake of new vehicle and fuel technologies,” the IEA said.
Source: www.bloomberg.com

Shale Set to Pummel Another Market as U.S. LNG Plants Arrive

Published in Oil Industry News on Friday, 22 May 2015
The U.S. is about to change the global LNG market forever.

When the first tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from shale fields leaves the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana in December, it will turn consumers into traders with more bargaining power. That will transform a market dominated by long-term contracts into one where spot trading gains prominence, similar to crude oil.

Since the first LNG cargo went to the U.K. from Algeria under a long-term contract in 1964, buyers opted for guaranteed supply because the fuel was scarce. That’s changing because gas from the Eagle Ford and other fields will transform the U.S. into the third-biggest exporter by 2020. Spot trading will probably account for almost half of transactions by then, from 29 percent last year, and LNG is poised to overtake iron ore as the most valuable commodity after oil.

“We see the U.S. as a major contributor to the development of the LNG spot market as the volumes start to ramp up,” Jamie Buckland, head of investor relations at GasLog Ltd. in London, which owns 22 LNG tankers, wrote in an e-mail May 14. “There should be a lot more flexibility and you could see some buyers of U.S. volumes selling product on to others.”

Last week, the Energy Department gave Cheniere Energy Inc. final approval for the nation’s fifth major export terminal at Corpus Christi in Texas, which will ship the fuel from 2018.

Valuable Commodity

Companies including Tokyo Gas Co. have said they will seek to profit from buying and selling U.S. cargoes that, unlike those on most current contracts, aren’t tied to a destination. Cheniere, the operator of Sabine Pass, expects the U.S. to produce 74 million metric tons of LNG by 2020. That’s about 22 percent of expected global output by 2019. Only Qatar and Australia will produce more.

Significant U.S. exports will likely boost prices, currently at about $3 a million British thermal units, Energy Aspects Ltd. said in a report for UniCredit SpA on Tuesday. U.S. gas may converge toward European levels, now at about $7 a million Btu, the analysts said.

U.S. natural gas will play an important role in connecting Pacific and Atlantic markets, Shigeru Muraki, an adviser at Tokyo Gas, said at a conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The company is expanding its investment in shale gas production in the U.S. as a natural hedge for LNG, he said.

Suppliers are now signing deals going as short as two or three years rather than 20 years, according to Charif Souki, Cheniere’s chief executive officer.

$120 Billion

Long-term contracts will be eroded amid new supply coming from Australia and the U.S., Dubai Mercantile Exchange’s CEO Christopher Fix said at the conference in Kuala Lumpur.

LNG trade will exceed $120 billion this year, overtaking iron ore as the second most valuable commodity after oil, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a March report. LNG is gas cooled to minus 160 degrees Celsius (minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit) so it occupies 600 times less space.

Spot and short-term LNG trades are defined by the International Group of LNG Importers in Paris as deals lasting four years or less. They accounted for 16 percent of all transactions in 2006 and that share may expand to 45 percent by 2020, according to Alan Whitefield, a senior associate at Sund Energy AS, a consultant to the industry.

The total LNG market will expand 40 percent by 2019, from 2013 levels, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Commodity Market

“What will make it a more interesting market is when gas starts being exported from the U.S., because then it becomes really like a commodity market,” Marco Dunand, the CEO of Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., said in an interview last month in Lausanne, Switzerland. “If you have constant supply coming from a terminal, then it becomes a liquid commodity.”

The new U.S. supply will also help link regional markets, said Ann-Elisabeth Serck-Hanssen, acting senior vice president of marketing and trading at Statoil ASA in Stavanger, Norway.

“We as a trading organization make our living from margins, so it both opens up opportunities and ties the different producing regions closer together,” she said by phone May 13. “If you believe a good market is a liquid market, this is positive.”
Source: www.bloomberg.com