BP Shuts Product Line From Whiting Coking Refinery, Starts Repairs (Update1)

[Charles Randall]

BP Shuts Line From Indiana Refinery, Starts Repairs (Update1)By Barbara PowellDec. 8, 2008 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc said it can’t estimate how long it will take to repair a pipeline taking refined products from its Whiting, Indiana, refinery to Michigan. The line was shut down Dec. 5 after being struck in a fatal vehicle accident.
BP, Europe’s second-largest oil company, is assessing the damage caused by a fire that occurred after the accident and can’t estimate how long the pipeline will be shut, Scott Dean, a company spokesman, said in an interview.
“We’ve arranged alternative means of supplying the terminal while the line is being repaired,” Dean said.
The pipeline carries products including gasoline to BP’s River Rouge, Michigan, fuel terminal from the Whiting refinery, which can process 420,000 barrels a day of crude oil.
Dean said BP shut the line when it noticed a pressure drop after the accident. The accident struck a valve.
Conventional gasoline for immediate delivery in the Chicago market narrowed its discount to futures to 13 cents from 14.75 cents today after BP said the line remains shut for repairs, said Lewis Adam, president of ADMO Energy LLC, a supply consultant in Kansas City, Missouri.
“If the line is shut down, it will probably back barrels up into the Chicago market,” which could make prices fall, Adam said. “But the effect may not be felt quite yet, as Chicago was traded at a discount of 13 cents earlier today.”
Adam said there are other pipelines nearby that BP could use to transport its refined fuel to market, including one owned by Buckeye Partners LP. BP could also buy finished products from other refiners to supply its River Rouge terminal, which could drive up wholesale prices.
The Whiting refinery is BP’s second largest in the U.S. after a plant in Texas City, Texas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara Powell in Dallas at Bpowell4@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: December 8, 2008 14:59 EST

[Charles Randall]

Suspected illegals arrested at area refinery
December 10, 2008 

Federal agents today arrested 15 janitorial workers at a BP Whiting Oil refinery plant in Indiana suspected of being in the country illegally, officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
The workers, all but one from Mexico, were employed by United Building Maintenance in Carol Stream, Ill., officials said. A company official there declined to comment.

Oil refineries are considered by ICE as “critical infrastructure” vulnerable to sabotage, attack or exploitation.

“There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, are working in secure areas of one of our nation’s largest oil refineries,” said Gary Hartwig, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago, in a press release. The arrests came after a two-year investigation.

The workers — 11 women and four men — have been placed into deportation proceedings, ICE officials said.

— Antonio Olivo

 

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