Various fires

[Freddy Martinez]

Two injured in Flint Hills refinery fire: report
Tue May 19, 12:37 pm ET
HOUSTON (Reuters) At least two people have been injured in a fire on Tuesday in the east plant of Flint Hills Resources’ 288,126 barrel per day (bpd) Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, according to a local newspaper.
The fire was under control, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported on its website.A Flint Hills spokeswoman said she did not have information immediately available about the fire.
Flint Hill Corpus Christi refinery is divided into two plants with the east plant closer to the main port complex in Corpus Christi.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
 
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BP Says Tank Fire Contained at Texas City Refinery (Update1)  By Aaron Clark and Elizabeth CampbellMay 19 (Bloomberg) — A BP Plc storage tank at the Texas City, Texas, refinery was struck by a fire, the company said.
No one was hurt and production has not been affected, according to Neil Geary, a company spokesman. The fire occurred at a tank that was out of service and being removed from the companys inventory, he said.
The refinery has a capacity of 470,000 barrels of oil a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
For Related News and Information: Stories on refinery disruptions: 
Last Updated: May 19, 2009 08:57 EDT
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Grass Fires Contained Near Martinez Refinery
MARTINEZ (CBS 5 / BCN)
 
A helicopter drops water on a grass fire neat the Tesoro Refinery in Martinez Tuesday. Fire crews contained a series of small grass fires that burned along the railroad tracks near the Tesoro refinery in Martinez Tuesday afternoon.

Train wheels reportedly sparked about 10 grass fires shortly after 1 p.m. in the area of Waterfront Road and Waterbird Way near Martinez, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District spokeswoman Emily Hopkins said.

By evening, firefighters were still working to put out some hot spots in the area, but had contained the flames. Hopkins also said trains in the were running again after being stopped for several hours.

Firefighters from Tesoro’s Golden Eagle Refinery and the Concord Naval Weapons Station assisted in the firefighting effort. A helicopter was also called to the area in case firefighters needed a water drop, Hopkins said.

The fires burned about a quarter of a mile from the guard gate at the Tesoro Refinery, Hopkins said.

[sudhakar bonthalaj]

It is time now to set Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each operating Coker. Initially they must cover Safety & Environment.I suggest each one of you give considerable thought to evolve KPIs voluntarily. Listing of Near miss incidents,Lessons learnt,Accident investigation reports that can be shared to prevent recurrence, Safety features that must be incorporated in the design of new Cokers,HAZOP recommendations,Mandatory rectifications,Plant change oders that enhance Safety and protect environment,plant modifications for enegy conservation etc.are valuable records that help you to achieve this target.
This set of KPIs can be further expanded to cover all process aspects like Coke drum overhead vapor velocity, drum switch cycle, coke yield, coke quality,Gas oil quality & yields, acceptance criteria of Coker streams in downstream units, H2S content of treated sour gas,quality give away on Coker products, Coker furnace Feed temp. etc.

[Lucibar Davalillo]

All these fires are happening after big refineries profits because their ambition to take the opportunity of the boom do not allow a chance for fixing what is wrong. No doubt measuring is required, but nothing changes without an assessment plan and responsible implementation in timely manner; operational excellence means that team understands how to make their equipment more reliable and safer, even before thinking on making money; having reliable equipment and trained teams will lead to increased safer production by itself.

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