by proldic » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:51 pm
Excerpted from Pravda Business 8/4/05:<br> <br>...Murphy Oil refinery's hydrorefining unit with the capacity of 18 thousands barrels a day caught fire last Thursday in Louisiana. An emergency shutdown of a reformer was reported later that day in Texas City, Texas, at a refinery operated by Marathon. On Thursday night another incident occurred at a different oil facility located in the same city, Texas City. One of the production blocks of a refinery operated by BP was reported on fire. The BP refinery has a processing capacity of 460 thousands of barrels a day, it is the third largest refinery in the U.S. <br><br>The fire at the refinery was put out by Friday morning. The event resulted in a decrease of gasoline production by 35 thousand of barrels a day. The same refinery had suffered a major industrial accident in March when the blast killed 15 workers. <br><br>However, last Thursday was not the only day in a series of mishaps and tragedy for some of the world's top oil firms. A fire broke out in an accommodation block of Schiehallion field owned by BP. As a result, operations at the field were suspended. The field has output capacity of 120 thousand barrels a day. <br><br>Last week was quite tragic not only for the British and U.S. oilmen. Last Wednesday 12 people died and 367 were rescued after fire completely destroyed an oil rig 160 km off India's west cost. The oil rig is owned by ONGC, an Indian oil and gas corporation. Officials said it could take a year to rebuild the platform that produced one-sixth of the country's oil. <br><br>Total damage caused by last week's events to the world oil market could be likened to the impact of a small war on the industry. <br><br>Any speculative actions relating directly or indirectly to the industry may result in further destabilization of the market.... <br> <p></p><i></i>