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Massive Gas Well Explosion Near Granbury, Texas; Raging Fireball Visible 30 Miles Away
Update: The pipe belongs to Enterprise Products Partners LP. Bloomberg reports: "Enterprise Products Partners LP shut a portion of its 36-inch natural gas pipeline after the line was struck by a fire. The line stretches from Waha in West Texas to the Carthage Hub in Panola, Rick Rainey, a company spokesman said in a telephone interview."
Following up on last week's explosion in Pennsylvania, Fox News is currently tracking a massive gas well explosion near Granbury, Texas. The fireball is so large (and currently blazing as the Fox News video below attest) that it can be seen 30 miles away. 3 have been reported dead, 6 are injured, and 10 are missing. From Arlington Cardinal:
A large explosion at at gas well has caused a large fire. Residents
could feel the ground shake and see flames shooting very high in the
air. The fire can be seen from 30 miles away. The fire is near
Granbury, Texas in Hood County. The fire was reported about 3 p.m. CDT
at 2101 County Road 1120 in Hood County.
This can not be good for recently surging nattie prices.
Readers can watch the explosion in real time at the Fox News link below (click on image for link), and here is a link from CNN.
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I wonder if they will ban all on-shore and off-shore drilling?
Its a pipeline, and not a well...
An electrical crew was digging a hole when it struck the gas pipeline, an emergency services spokesman in Hood County, Texas, said.
Ban electrical crews.
Exactly,it was a pipeline and electrical workers dug into it. Not the headline the industry needs now.
How fucking useless. Pipeline installation utilizes some of the very best precision surveying (usually in combination with GPS but not always) both during pipe laying AND during as-built location work before being backfilled.
Point being, it's not hard to properly locate it on the ground down to the hundredth of a foot. With a high-pressure gas line, there is no excuse for an accident of this gravity. None. Someone cut a corner, probably several. Shocking, I know.
I junked you. You talk big, but I am a pipeliner, and I got news for you: You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. First of all, Trimble GPS coordinates actually give readings much more accurate than 100th of a foot. But there are too many variables. When was this line built? If it's much more than a decade or so old, (probable), the GPS coordinates weren't taken as part of the as-built, but are actually extrapolated of off weld measurements and pig data, and are notoriously innaccurate. I have PERSONALLY dug up pipelines based on GPS coordinates, and been nearly 2500' off.
Secondly, How do you know they didn't dig into an "abandoned" farm tap? Been there, and it's scary shit. How do you know there wasn't an equipment failure?
Thirdly, there had to either have been an open system, or BADLY weakened pipe in order for there to have been gas present in the first place. I've seen hoe buckets bounce off pipe hard enough to make football size dents. The shit doesn't just rupture and explode.
Fourth, and most importantly, I don't give a fuck whether you have GPS, the greatest line locator in the world, or a pair of witching sticks. You don't pay them two seconds of nevermind until you've felt that SOB with a probe rod, or dug it up by hand. Which is why I junked your post.
Pipelining is dangerous work. Accidents happen. Period. Don't go spouting off about corner cutting until you've found out what ACTUALLY happened. 'Cause I've been to funerals where there weren't any corners cut. None.
You talk like a still shitting green engineer, who can compute MAOP, and design pumping stations, but have never actually seen a section lowered in.
Douche.
On edit: Trimble is not the only GPS software manufactorer, and it matters much more whether you're using RTK or static collection, and even then your VRS type and post-processing is more of a factor. Of course sub-centimeter accuracy is easily achievable but that's overkill for line location. Pay your surveyor heed, regardless of how far off you've seen them in the past. Give me a two-second gun and an as-built and I'll locate your line "close enough" that you can stay the hell away from it while you're laying electrical cable.
However, my limited knowledge of line maintenance really does preclude me from being able to comment on excavating them. But that's not what was happening here. An electric utility company was, apparently, laying cable.
As-builts might not be located and drawn correctly you said? Sounds like a cut fucking corner, especially when we're talking about high-pressure gas lines!
First off, sorry I blew up.
What I'm saying is that some of these pipelines are 60 years old. There is NO as built GPS data for them. They GPS known points, then add the joint lengths from the as builts to devine coordinates. All it takes is a half dyslexic hungover inspector to have written some numbers down wrong, and your gps data is irrelevant. GPS is seldom used in pipeline locating as far as digging, but rather to narrow down areas where anomalies have been found when pigging.
The older the system, the more likely it is that mapping is virtually non existent. Including the ever elusive "farm taps" which are literal ticking time bombs to crews digging on these lines. Every company I've ever worked for has a locator on site. They will locate and verify the pipe. They will not let you dig within two feet of it until exposed either by hand, or non dest. excavation. Generally speaking, these equipment operators are as good as it gets.
I'm not saying corners never get cut, but as time goes on, it's less and less. There is pretty much across the board zero tolerance for most of it, and most people don't want to lose their job. It pays good money, because it's dangerous.
I've been in the industry long enough to know that it is OVER the TOP anal when it comes to digging around pipelines. It takes a lot to rupture a line that's in good condition. Dent it? Yes. Buckle it? Yes. Rupture it? Not unless there was another underlying issue. That's why I'm steadfastly going with accident until proven otherwise.
No worries, I really shouldn't have opened my mouth in what amounted to pure speculation based on my one area of expertise. I don't know the technical specs on high-pressure steel lines, nor do I know about industry standards. Before I edited my last reply I said I deserved that junk, and I still think that. To my mind, GPS is a secondary thought on what very well could be decades-old pipelines. With no (or guesstimated) coordinate pairs to start from, you're probably better off starting at an arbitrary 5000,5000, grabbing a standard gun, and working off bearings or internal angles and distances, or some combination. Besides, my former boss was admittedly dyslexic, so believe me when I tell you that transposed numbers are the bane of my existence.
At any rate, point taken about my not having nearly enough facts or experience to support my initial claim. Unfortunately, you old fuckers are going to start having even more reason to not pay a whole lot of attention to the up-and-coming crop of surveyors. GPS totalstations and handheld mapping and data collectors are turning the industry into a collection of monkeys pushing buttons while remaining clueless about fundamental math. Thanks for the reminder that even I might have a thing or two to learn. /sarc
You talk like a still shitting green engineer, who can compute MAOP, and design pumping stations, but have never actually seen a section lowered in.
As a telecom engineer, that was one of the things that pissed me off about my education. Yes, I could whiteboard an entire telecom network for you, but put me in front a main distribution frame (MDF) - which is where the nice connectors coming out of your telephone system connect to the actual phones on your desk - and I was lost in front of that rat's nest. It used to piss me off royally when I looked at the data group's LAN connections - all nice RJ-45 jacks, neatly labelled, in racks that were all spaced together perfectly, etc., - and then looked at the telecom MDF, crammed together on BIX blocks, with nary a label in sight. If pipelines were ever treated with the same "utility" attitude that telecoms got, I can understand why maps are out of date.
i'm going to agree with this comment. because they are so volatile, pipeline excavations are one of the most closely watched, carefully conducted construction operations imagineable. with critical case ( larger diameter pipes) i've actually had company engineers on site during operations.
you must be very, very careful, and the closer you get, the slower you go when excavating around high pressure lines. even a small mistake can have huge consequences.
that's probably what happened here..............................
That's just Bernanke burning the banks toxic mortgages.
Nah.,thats just Goldman burning documents
That's the Euro.
That's Obama doing a Pepsi commercial.
going to hell in a handbasket.
How many signs do we get?
as many as it takes...................
It is my understanding that blowouts aren't that rare, but now the whole industry is under the microscope. Waiting for the gov't to make the situation worse....
and there was another in W VA this morning, not so big - how common is it?
I was a trainee in the oil business in 1979 and was at a well in central Texas that blew out right when I was there. Fortunately the gas did not catch fire so they were able to bring the well under control relatively easily.
Afterwards they atrributed the blowout to human error.
It appears that the Macondo / Gulf blowout featured LOTS of human error.
It amazes me that 30 years after what I saw in 1979 that BP did not VERY CAREFULLY manage a well 50 miles offshore and in 5000' deep water. It seems that BP is a sleazy oil company when it comes to cutting corners.
...
I guess the bottom line now is that oilfield workers must be better trained and managers must be accountable (as in go to jail).
Yeah, BP made the meth bubble under the Ocean floor.
I was working on a rig once that had a blowout, but the gas did not explode. It did rain drill stem for a few minutes. Ever try to dodge a mile of drill stem . . .not fun. People were routinely killed in rig floor accidents, but never got on the news.
What is the mortality rate for you guys? How routine do you mean by "routinely killed"?
I worked on a land based rig during summers to go through college. In a three month period, I would see people routinely seriously injured. Most common accident was losing fingers. Injuries and fatalities came from a variety of sources. Blowouts can be fatal, even without explosions, as drill stem and other heavy metal can be blown all over the place. Electrocution/electrical accidents were common, resulting from faulty equipment, or incorrect use of equipment. Problems also came from failure of high pressure lines, which blow metal shrapnel when they blow. Lots of heavy powerful equipment, with lots of exposed moving parts. Another problem was rig wrecks to and from rig. Roughnecks worked 8-16 hours a day, 7 days a week, and rig was often 2 hour drive from home. Lots of accidents from night driving and driver fatigue. Probably as many people killed to and from rigs, as on rigs. I never saw anyone die on the rig floor, but there were several fatalities on shifts I was not working. So, this is a small data set, and quantitative conclusions can not be drawn from it, but it is safe to say that being a roughneck is among the most dangerous jobs out there.
Had a friend who went to Western Canada to work on oil rigs many years back. He returned in six weeks, citing fear for his life. This guy was a hell of a daredevil, racing motorcyles, doing stunts, etc., and he was sure he was either going to die or be severely injured. The pay was great, but not enough for what he thought he might lose.
No one was even hurt at the blowout I was at in 1979. They switched on a valve right before the gas reached the surface, so the gas just blew out that valve, very loud and impressive.
The other rigs I worked featured only a few injuries that Rebel mentions. Falls, losing a finger.
Far as I remember, no one was ever killed on any rig when I was on it.
- you mean like this??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzY7C7Zjtuw
...this guy lost his thumb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lY_gY3nXB8&feature=related
Was there an explosion? When there is a blowout but no fire, is it a big deal?
Douche Roller Bearings
I was a trainee in the oil business in 1979 and was at a well in central Texas that blew out right when I was there. Fortunately the gas did not catch fire so they were able to bring the well under control relatively easily.
I guess the bottom line now is that oilfield workers must be better trained and managers must be accountable (as in go to jail).
For someone who supposedly worked in the industry, you sure come off as pretty ignorant.
Oh wait... you said Trainee. Sounds like you got run off before you had a chance to figure out WTF was going on. Don't quit your desk job.
I was a trainee "Mud Engineer" in 1979. The guy who I ran with (the real mud engineer) even pointed out the fluid in the mud tanks was rising. He then went to the rig floor and the crew there said they were dealing with a "kick" (fluid coming into the bore from below).
To my knowledge no one was even hurt at that blowout. They shut the well in pretty quickly (some 45 minutes after the gas, very impressive plume by the way, came shooting out).
I was not run off as I had no say in any matter as a TRAINEE. And it has been a long time since I was in the business (I went to feed at the trough in Washington in 1982) and now am semi-retired.
Broken_Trades. Your reply seems very mean-spirited. Why?
Very.
Right, like every month many workers are killed, it happens all of the time... nothing to see here...
It's hard and dangerous work and that's why the pay is good.
I'm ready to eat my sarcasm. I'm just waiting on the mortality numbers.
Me too, interesting to know. It will not change anything though.
Bottom line is that no bad news is supposed to be released in this country. there is no free press, only very big ones come out , since its too big to cover up,they have to put on news. Remember gulf spill was shown to us as something not important at the beginning.
The news does not spread fast in the MSM, but I can guarantee you that any accident is quickly forwarded to every safety manager across companies and will be discussed at daily/weekly safety meetings.
Worker safety was always pressed at daily safety meetings in the morning prior to a shift when I was a floor-hand (roughneck), but simply being in the presence of so many massive forces, add in some unpredictability and shit is bound to happen ever now and then.
"Bottom line is that no bad news is supposed to be released in this country"
Right on the money. Familiar with the the Nigerian oil spills? They are larger, and several times more blatant and careless.
"Bottom line is that no bad news is supposed to be released in this country"
Right on the money. Familiar with the the Nigerian oil spills? They are larger, and several times more blatant and careless.
I don't know, but would bet that mortality and injury rates are a big function of who you work for. The dangerous place is the small wildcat operations where the company just has two or three rigs, and are paid by the foot. In these cases, equipment is not maintained, risks are taken, and the only focus is "making hole". Every corner is cut to drill as quickly as possible. Pay is very good, and it is an exciting life for a young man. Thinking back on the risks, today I cringe.
Good point, it really matters who's running the rig.
Rebel, I never got hurt, but did have a situation, a story you might like.
I was working 60 miles SE of Corpus Christi on a jackup in the summer of 1980. I was still kind of a worm. There was another mud engineer on that rig, so I worked the night shift.
I had finished dinner and went up to see the Driller to ask him about current conditions, etc. before headuing down to do my mud check and report. He told me everything was just fine mud-man, between him smacking his tobacco wedged down there under his lip. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a tin of Skol (I think can see where this is going). He then pulled out a gob and wedged it in there, I was amazed he could find more space there, I mean his spittle was already going down his chin. Just as he was about to drop his tin back, he looked at me and said: "Skol, brother?"
Well as you know the oilfield was a very macho man kind of place, at least back then. I of course could not decline, or it would have been the start of no end of torment... However, I had heard about how you deal with Skol, I was ready (Rule 1: don't swallow)...
I said: "Sure, thanks", and took the tiniest amount possible (less than 1 cubic mm), put it in there and spit copiously. As the buzz hit, I excused myself to go check on the mud, but in reality I wanted that NASTY stuff OUT of my mouth. I then spit it out and washed out my mouth at least 10 times there at the water spitting away. But, the buzz kept coming, so retired to a quiet place along the edge of the rig to let it wear off.
After a bit the Derrickman came by. I told him that the I had taken some Skol and windered how that could be legal. He chuckled. Alas, in clear view of him, I jumped up and was starting to run when it happened.
I projectile vomitted staright through the grating into the Gulf. Derrickman was so amused by this he was slapping his leg, "Worm done and puked...! Hahaha!"
It took me 2 hours before I felt better. The rest of the week I got a lot more offers for Skol, which I politely declined each time.
DoChen,
I could see it happening as I read the story. Sounds like the drillers I knew. Where I worked, the tradition was that on your first night on a rig, the roughnecks would hold you down, drop your drawers, and paint you up and down with dope, that greasy stuff they use between the drill stems. Knowing that was the tradition, that night when they were all coming towards me, I said, lets just get this over with, and dropped my drawers myself. They laughed so hard that they did bother to dope me. Probably the only roughneck in Texas that did not get his privates doped.
Pipelining, it's "getting greased". In your first week after breaking out, plan on getting an entire tube of lithium shoved down the back of your ass. Best bet is to fight a little bit to show you're no puss, but not too hard. I've seen some big SOB's put up one helluva fight. Even if it takes twenty guys, you're still gonna get greased, you'll just be beat to shit and greasy at the same time.
Colonel,
Yeah, I saw this one guy who was a "yankee" who came to work on the rig. That first night the roughnecks approached him to dope him. He made the mistake of telling the four of them that "There are not enough of you", and he started swinging. He got doped head to toe, front and back, plus got the crud beat out of him. He left and never came back.
Another time a crew on my rig was driving out to the rig. They picked up a hitch hiker on I-10. After a few miles, the hitch hiker pulled a knife on one of them, and demanded money. The roughneck just grinned at him, punched him in the face, and knocked him silly. They then proceeded to strip the guy totally naked, and left him stark naked on the side of the road on I-10. Always wondered how that guy got back to town, and what story he told. Friendly advice . . . if you are ever hitch hiking on I-10 in West Texas and 4 good ol' boys boys in a suburban stop and give you a ride, don't try and rob them with a knife.
I'd heard about getting "doped" too, but it never happened to me.
The humiliation would have been double because they would have seen the small size of my equipment...
The mind reels... Cognitive Dissonance would then have a REALLY CRAZY PERSON to deal with here at ZH had that happened to me...
I highly recommend CD's article above, the one there now is Numero Tres in his series. It's a little bit of tough sledding, but he is writing up great stuff.
Rebel,
Yep, if you resisted it would cause a bit more of a problem. Good strategy.
My Dad had a friend who pushed Smith drill bits, and after college got me hired on (for the money). I rough necked on a triple for an outfit called Loffland Brothers for a couple of years.
Started off racking pipe, then to back-ups, by-passed motors, and then to derricks.
Being a good Derrick-man was generally gauged on how smooth your pipe racker could pick up the stand from the floor, and then stab the pipe with little effort. When we would run 3.5" pipe I use to stand to the side, as the Kelly was coming up with the elevators, I would lean out and bow that 3.5" out, and as the elevators came up snap the stand right into the elevators, so when the stand was picked up, it picked up straight, and whoever was racking pipe wouldn't be bombing from side to side, and could effortlessly stab it. I got so good that the pipe racker could literally pick it up with one hand, and stab it. It became an art.
What we had to worry about was H2S gas. I remember there were a 3 guys working on a bull shit rig, and out of no where a bubble of H2S came up, and killed all 3 instantly. Ugh!
You'll never know. That's the point isn't it? When the world runs out of rig workers. We're fucked.
I often wonder how many truckers die each year moving tomatoes from Mexico for the thankless New Yorkers? Or how many farmers end up with broken legs from moving cattle so that someone superior in New York can be well fed?
Lots of people don't seem to understand that there is real important work being done by people who don't spend much time in a white pants suit and clicking a computer mouse.
I have worked both extremes of the spectrum. Besides being a roughneck, I once ran the electronic ejaculator to collect semen from prized bulls. On the other end, I have had high flying executive positions in Silicon Valley high tech companies. The big difference I noticed is that in low end blue collar jobs, your coworkers have your back. I once saw three guys jump into an electrified pond, trying to save their buddy. On the other hand, in high end jobs, your coworkers are more likely to stab you in the back, than have your back. Just one person's observations.
Rebel, you need a laugh? Please see my story just above about my, er, situation offshore once on a rig.
I always thought working on a rig was the worlds most dangerous occupation. Then someone decided fishi g for King crabs is worse.
Who farted and tried to light it?
OMG! what if it sets the Gulf of Mexico on fire!
I'm still waiting for Katla.
Katla?
http://www.elitesideeffect.com/blog/the-us-doesn-t-like-you-kabam-earthshake-
Missing he? Sounds like a cheap funeral for those guys.
Obama... Obama... Obama... what will you do... he should huff and puff a bit more so windpower gets a second chance.
Do you have a family? I'm guessing a lot of these guys do. How about a little respect for those who just lost their lives making an honest living and their family members that have to cope with the tragedy.
COAL BITCHES!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
looks like a great place to start a TAZ
I was just in Granbury a month ago. You guys need to take a trip to Granbury if you can. They have a GREAT wildlife preserve there that takes several hours to drive through. Stay at the "Inn on the River", it's first class!
Gas well drilling moratoriums coming soon!
Roasted black swan will be on the menu for a few days. Enjoy.
Are we still calling these accidents?
These kind of events are relatively common, but the dinosaur news usually ignores them. Now that they have a main dish, they can add the side dishes with it. It's very clever. All you need is one staged event, then you can parade around normal happenings as if an industry is suddenly out of control.
I'm totally open to your interpretation. But already the talking heads are downplaying the gulf disaster by comparing it to lesser disasters made to sound big, like the Iraqi one where all of the oil was spilled, kindly so, on the surface. Apples to oranges.
And now I'm hearing that big explosions followed by spewing fire the likes of which I've never seen (I caught the live footage) with 11 people missing are commonplace, nothing newsworthy, and that we shouldn't parade around this event.
So just give me the numbers. I like graphs and statistics and stuff.
Very true, before the GOM spill this would have been a u-tube highlight for budding pyromaniacs, and nothing else, except for locals, unless Fox had a dead couple of seconds to fill. Explosions are always good press.
+1000
BP Washington Briefing Has All The Data + Proof They Knew It Was About To Blow:
Link to direct report: http://video.godlikeproductions.com/BP_Presentation.pdf
Wonder why GS sold its 40% of BP.
Ugh we're used to these things in the barnett. Unfortunately 3 dead and 10 missing.
This industry is one of the few things keeping the economy in North Texas afloat.
I doubt there will be any ban here. There are literally a thousand in 100 mile radius most of which operate safely.
Low taxes, no income taxes, low regulation, a legislature that meets every other year...those are the more important factors. The shale business is epsilon in the equation, although we do welcome it.
America will not be allowed to become energy independent.
You cannot have a NWO with a super power in it.
You know they say:
Once is an accident.
Twice is a coincidence.
Three times is on purpose.
Inside job or attack?
Does it matter?
no difference.
wth are we contracting blowout preventer designs to the KGB?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage
Keep up, we are called the FSK now, KGB is so USSR.
easily recognizable > accurate
Oh stop pretending, it's called FSB. FSK is so 1995.
Me, I actually like to cook on induction plates. No gas for me.
Oversized magnifying glasses work well, too.
Got a light?
How convenient. I guess the one they blew up last week to goose nat gas prices was not good enough.
Nice thinking. Supply >< demand... good to see capitalisme is till working :)
Sure are a lot of incidents happening lately...in an industry watched as closely as the oil industry makes one wonder if these are coincidences or not.
Oil : Check
Gas : Check
Do do:
Nuclear : June/July
Not at all. Just with the price of natgas so low the industry has cut way back. Also the Texas state railroad commission which is in charge of all inspection is broke and understaffed as it is.
So start expecting explosions daily?
I'm not convinced. How many explosions on this scale have already happened in the area? How many more to expect? If what you imply is true, that this is not a fluke, we should start expecting much more to come.
Events such as this (utility crew hitting gas main) were pretty common in my area during the construction boom, must have happened every couple of months (usually without the explosion and loss of life). HP gas mains are nothing to fool with, I saw a 2" main blow up 50' of sidewalk when it ruptured. This one looks like it was way bigger.
Since the only people who probably really know are the same people who lie to us consistently... assume nothing, I guess.
Yeah, that electrical line laying team cutting into a gas line, that is definitely correlated in a lot of spooky ways, and not just in time. This all happened in the northern hemisphere too. And ZH was quick, maybe just a little too quick if you get my drift, getting the articles up there, complete with dramatic photos.
Are you suggesting Zerohedge is supposed to keep us in the dark? Whats your point, are you happier with the slow pace of MSM? So go. if you dont trust this website why are you here?
Go drift some more
This random accident clearly doesn't have anything to do with anything financial.
We might as well have titled this post: "Look! Shiny! Let's have an open thread."
Don't have any statistics at my fingertips, but, gas line explosions are pretty common. Usually human error, but, like in Florida sand, or earthquake/landslide zones, the ground shifts and breaks the line. If ya want stats on this, I would check w/environmental groups that protest the laying of large nat gas lines in populated areas. They are usually smaller leaks, but sure is scary when they blow in your backyard.
I heard about a farmer that tapped a gas line so that he didn't have to pay the bill. Hooked it up, started up his clothes dryer, and then left to get groceries. I guess nobody told him that the house feeds are pressure regulated way down at the meter. The guy came back to a 20' fireball and no house, and then had to explain how his house burned down.
My guess would be that most of the populated area problems are caused by people doing stupid things.
Regrettably, this happens all too often out here.
It was a pipeline, apparently a bunch of electric workers dug right into it.
I saw that episode! The one where the bad guys disguised themselves as electricians...
Gasoline retailers pissed because they have been ordered not to raise prices this summer.
How is it we never hear of a catastrophic wind farm disaster?
Didn't you hear? Greenpeace is against wind farming because of all the birds the mills kill!
And I am serious....
Mr Lennon Hendrix
We know what happened to the Chinese when they chose to kill off their birds.
economessed
Well Wind farms don't produce in freezing cold.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/6957501/Wind-farm...
Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap
Wind farms produced "practically no electricity" during the cold snap which manufacturers' groups say could lead to severe winter energy shortages.
Here is a wind turbine blowing apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14tBwO5QVQ
Not wind but tidal power for this one.
http://www.oceanpowermagazine.net/2010/05/17/oceanlinx-wave-generator-br...
Oceanlinx Wave Generator Breaks Free of Pylons and Crashes into Breakwall at Port Kembla, Australia
economessed Well Wind farms don't produce in freezing cold.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/6957501/Wind-farm... Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap Wind farms produced "practically no electricity" during the cold snap which manufacturers' groups say could lead to severe winter energy shortages.
Here is a wind turbine blowing apart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14tBwO5QVQ
Not wind but tidal power for this one. http://www.oceanpowermagazine.net/2010/05/17/oceanlinx-wave-generator-br... Oceanlinx Wave Generator Breaks Free of Pylons and Crashes into Breakwall at Port Kembla, Australia
The damages are more subtle with wind turbines. They interfere with radar for bats, and military tracking radar stations, I believe in Morrow County OR, the military is blocking the placement of more turbines in the forest of them that have been erected there. That radar station tracks "incoming missiles", so the military says. They all have blinking lights on the top of them that at night, turn the rural areas a lot of them are in, into one huge xmas tree, we dont know the effects yet. And if you have ever seen a turbine blade go flying off, one of the scariest things I've seen. Not to mention the mining damage for the steel and rare earth metals used to make them, .....
Point being, all large scale, centralized power systems have their drawbacks. Which risks are you willing to assume?
Aren't you Petroleum engineers supposed to be all chemically and barely know the other sciences. :P Before you know it Electrical engineers will be able to competently apply heat understandings in chip cooling designs. LOL
It's a mess. Solar is better but has too long of payback ratios and it won't stand being centralized because you lose all it's goodies in transmission losses.
You can make turbines which look EXACTLY like a turocharger turbine are vertical and they are large masses that work in low wind really well. Couple them with automatic transmission designs and it's just a matter of using them and replacing the alternators every 5 to 10 years. If you make one that could survive 50 years it would kill your payback costs but at the very least you keep this centralized system at bay which keeps wanting to big huge gangs to control everything.
But you have to keep in mind what the control freaks. They want megawatt data centers that face recognize everybody everywhere track everything everyone does. There's no end to their power thirst and needs. So they want the easy power themselves and make it tough on everyone else.
Seems there are Gas well problems all over.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/06/02/edmonton-calmar-gas-i...
Gas well leak forces Albertans from homes
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 | 6:55 PM MT
CBC News
Five families in Calmar, Alta., are being forced out of their homes because of a leaking natural gas well.
After the leak was discovered in 2008, the more than 50-year-old well owned by Imperial Oil was temporarily sealed.
Imperial Oil has since bought five surrounding homes it plans to bulldoze so it can seal the well off completely and turn the land into parkland.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/95627159.html
ri, Jun. 4, 2010
Emergency crews contain Pa. gas well leak
By Amy Worden
INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU
HARRISBURG – Natural gas and polluted drilling water shot out of a rural Pennsylvania well after an accident late Thursday night caused by unexpectedly high gas pressure.
Department of Environmental Protection officials say no drilling water has spilled into a waterway, although the accident occurred in an environmentally sensitive area in the SB Elliott State Park in Clearfield County.
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency officials said that the accident had been contained as of 12:15 p.m.
But flights have been restricted over the area as a precautionary measure, PEMA said.
The drilling area lies at the headwaters of the west branch of the Susquehanna River, officials said. The drilling water could flow east into the Susquehanna or west into the Ohio River.
The accident apparently occurred late Thursday when unexpectedly high gas pressure in the newly drilled EOG Resources well prevented crews from containing it. Emergency crews were at the scene all morning.
There are no homes within a mile.
http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=12420413
Gas well leak traumatizes evacuees' pets
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Gas well leak traumatizes evacuees' pets
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SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) – It appears mental fatigue is beginning to catch up with the fifty or so families still waiting to return home two weeks after a gas well leak forced their evacuation from south Caddo Parish. That fatigue extends to their pets, as well. And it's beginning to show.
A large number of evacuees still out of their homes, because they live within a half-mile radius of the well site, are pet owners. Most of them are staying at the Clarion Hotel on East 70th Street in south Shreveport, which does not allow pets. And that's causing a lot of the problems.
http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12264223
State Works To Plug Leaking Natural Gas Well In Bartlesville
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State Works To Plug Leaking Natural Gas Well In Bartlesville
"Drilled back at the turn of the century, nobody knew it was here. We have no records on this well," said John Hurd, Corporation Commission Inspector. "Drilled back at the turn of the century, nobody knew it was here. We have no records on this well," said John Hurd, Corporation Commission Inspector.
ONG crews doing an inspection found the well. Since it's in such a populated area, it ranks as the most severe on the corporation commission's well plugging priority scale. ONG crews doing an inspection found the well. Since it's in such a populated area, it ranks as the most severe on the corporation commission's well plugging priority scale.
Contractors for the state will pump concrete down the 600-foot deep well to plug it, which is expensive, but necessary in this case due to the well's location. Contractors for the state will pump concrete down the 600-foot deep well to plug it, which is expensive, but necessary in this case due to the well's location.
By Craig Day, The News On 6
BARTLESVILLE, OK -- An old, leaking gas well is prompting immediate action by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
LET'S DO THIS PEOPLE!!!
1. Oké, we need 2 webcams with a bad resolution, one aimed at a small campfire to show on CNBC and 1 for our own.
2. We need some painters to paint the outhouse white and write DOME II on it.
3.We also need some ghostwriters to start writing the script we can sell to holywood! And book Bruce Willis for the lead! We should at least get 5 mil. for that story!
LET'S DO THIS PEOPLE!!!
WOW, type in the address 2101 county road 1120, cleburne tx into google maps and you can see the pipeline being built on the satellite images! The explosion looks to be about 3000 ft NW from that address (follow the pipe laid out on the ground) you can see the sub-station near there, too.
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Damn it. The oil prices and nat gas prices are not going up. Let's sabotage...he he he, there are only so many oil tankers that we can hire and park in the mediteranean sea with refined gas. What happened to Nigerian rebels when you need them or that damn hurricane.
- man, this peak civilization is good stuff, eh??
All these accidents are starting to read like "Atlas Shrugged". Things falling into disrepair due to lack of money and good people leaving for greener pastures.
'greener pasters' these days is unemployment.
My guess is that the person responsible for marking the gas line right of way may have been a bit off, or the contractor installing the 138 KV line through there didn't notice the flags.
I couldn't see the tip of the flames, but I did see the initial smoke. It really sucks when they drill into a gas line of that size. They hit the gathering lines fairly frequently, but nothing like this has happened in quite some time.
This will disrupt some well output, but their is enough in storage to keep a major blip in prices from occuring..... I hope.
They are attacking Ron Paul from all sides. First they will get him from the sea with a black blob, then they will burn him from the north, they will then flood him with rain from above and then they will release fotos of his gay lover or perhaps his bastard kid
Too bad Geithner and Bernanke weren't 2 of the 3 that died. Could have saved the American people alot of pain that is coming our way financially. Can't understand why good people die and crooks live on unaccountable for anything.
AHH SHIT, it just keeps coming !!
Sen. Bill Nelson: Reports of oil seeping up from seabed, well casing may be pierced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bj_kco8qTQ&feature=player_embedded
May be the apocalypse where the oceans and water bodies turn red is due to light sweet crude.
Somehow the Bush administration is behind this. It's in Texas right?
We are seeing signs of widespread systemic breakdown, like my car I had in high school (Budweiser license plate, Steal Your Face sticker: it was a great ride, partied in it all the time, had sex in it a couple of times, then took it on too long a road trip and it started to fall apart. I had to use shoestrings and a coat hanger to get it home. From then, it was one thing after another until it finally just gave out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bStCcEiOUEw&feature=player_embedded#!
MSNBC Producer Flips Out!!
The thing is, no oil and or gas blowouts, gushers, or leaks or fires ever occured before now, and so now that this sort of thing is happening, it is absolutely critical to have a lengthy comment thread about it, below a rapidly posted photo and newsblurb.
All this adds up to using up storage of nat gas going into H-cane season and hot (a/c) weather. Nat gas probably goes higher, no? I think storage about 5% above 5-yr ave, could be worked down.
We are at 14.6% abover the 5 year storage averages. Plenty of gas in storage.
I think witnesses need to start paying attention if government plate vehicles are seen leaving the scenes of these catastrophes. Wouldn't surprise me the least if it was inside jobs. But I don't wanna start no conspiracy theories now. LOL
It seems the Fox News live feed is now directed at another gas bag going up in flames.
When I clicked on the link, I'll I got was video feed of Obama at the Kalamazoo graduation events.
Until they plug the hole, equity markets will continue to go down.....
Just Bevis and Butthead drillin' some ol' utility pole holes. Nothing to see here. Homeland Security, stand down!
You guys wouldn't cooperate at Copenfrauden so I guess the sin of carbon had to be clearly spelled out to you after all... every sin has its indulgence to be paid and yours will be the carbon tax yoke you deserve for expecting energy independence....somebody get Dick some more ordinance...Al Gore has a divorce to pay for!
Sorry. Just channeling The Club of Rome/Bilderberg/Black Op chat line for a second.... seriously though, the fortuitous timing of all these oil and gas disasters to serve what will be the pending Obama green drive to central banking marxist carbon taxes has all the credibility of Gary Coleman's widow's 911 call.
Need a coupl more spills, tanker accidents and gas fires to make the coming ballistic rise in oil believable.
That's why I hate fossil fuels. Hopefully they will end some day, when all reserves are exhausted.
Not in your lifetime, your children's or your grandchildren's.