Abother major Refinery Blast & Fire

Another oil refinery blast, an oil fire disaster. No doubt another round of investigation; list of safety violation ... oops sorry lapses (they are quite sensitive on the terms), pesky human errors...no management faults, all small people faults....time to sack more small people for incompetence and so the merry go round and round.

I tell you with all the daily safety briefing, safety job hand over, hazards prevention routines, safety assessments, hot permits this and hot permits that, one has to really really wonder whether the giants global corporations are already too big to handle.

Has safety lethargy and overload sets in. I have seen safety scoreboards and checklist being ticked without actual examination. I have seen air pressure marked and written down as pass when it was clearly shown on the indicator it had fallen more than 20% of the minimum. When queried, the "senior staff" had the cheek to answer, it is for the "form only". No big deal. Worse when this was brought up in the safety meeting and made known to his supervisor, no action was taken at all because he was his favorite boy. No wonder he was working as if he could do no wrong even when it was against safety regulations ..oops just safety nuisances.

That was not an isolated incident. If it is industry wide, then the system itself is showing signs of breaking. Has safety complacency set in? Even external audit paid for by corporates cannot keep rogue corporates from so many financial scandals. Can safety audits paid for and controlled by corporates be able to police and enforce safety regulations.

We saw that it failed miserably in so many of BP oil industrial accidents only because of public spotlight. Did Shell have similar bad track records? You bet. If only the public spotlight is on and if we dig deeper. Otherwise, it will be cover-up and business as usual. Safety First should be changed to

SAFETY FRAUD (NO CRIMES INTENDED).

The local economy could suffer a hit of more than a $100 million if the massive Bukom refinery closes for a month, economists have said.

The oil giant's plant, which refines 500,000 barrels a day and is Shell's largest in the world, was shut down following a 32-hour fire last week.

Economists looked at the value added to the economy from the petroleum refining and petrochemicals industries, to estimate the cost of closing the plant.

Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng said that assuming a one-month closure, there could be a 0.04 percentage point loss in full-year gross domestic product growth. This assumes Shell contributes about a third to petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing in Singapore, which is the market estimate.

Singapore's total GDP was $285 billion last year, so the loss from Shell could be about $114 million.

While manufacturing has been supported by the pharmaceutical sector, other sectors such as electronics and chemicals have been in a slump. OCBC economist Selena Ling said: 'In August the chemicals cluster was already contracting year-on-year. So it is not currently a key driver of manufacturing output. But this just adds to the depressing manufacturing numbers.' Mr Song added: 'The drag in industrial output expected for September will now likely extend into October. The bottom line is that we will be affected.' Shell, which produces petrochemicals from kerosene to jet fuel at the facility has since declared force majeure on some of its contracts.

Force majeure means the company is freed from contractual obligations in the event of extraordinary circumstances.

http://www.straitstimes.com/The-Big-Story/The-Big-Story-3/Story/STIStory_720014.html

Shell outage drives up Asia transport, heating costs

http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Story/A1Story20111006-303602.html

SINGAPORE - The shutdown of Royal Dutch Shell's RDSa.L biggest refinery is driving up the cost of transport and heating fuel to buyers from China to Indonesia as they scramble to secure alternative supplies.

The fire has knocked out 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of distillate - heating oil, jet fuel and diesel - equivalent to the volume of diesel Southeast Asia's top consumer Indonesia imports.

The city state is Asia's oil trading hub, so interruptions in supply and unexpected purchases can trigger price moves out of proportion with the size of the refinery disruption.

A prolonged spike in regional oil product prices will hurt emerging nations from China to the Philippines as their subsidy outlays will increase. These economies are grappling with rising prices, especially of food, as higher energy rates boost transportation and farming costs.