Refinery Explosion

[DaveinOlyWA]

i just saw reports on the news that said that production would be completely unaffected.

which makes me think that either that place is huge (3rd largest in US) or that someone is lying. hard to believe an explosion of that magnitude wouldnt cause some sort of disruption.

then again, when i think of oil company greed, ya i can easily believe that it would be business as usual despite losing 15 co-workers

[dbarry]

The BP Plant here in Houston actually consists of 31 refineries. The plant produced 3% of the U.S. supply of unleaded gasoline. It's been running at 97.8% capacity (virtual 100%) for the past several years.

The Octane Enhancement Unit that exploded was going off-line for a "turn-around', which is preventative maintenance. It's considered the most dangerous part of plant operation.

I clearly heard the explosion, and I'm 27 miles away from the plant.

[jayman]

I think the only thing more exciting than the refinery explosion was that ammonium perchlorate plant explosion near Henderson, NV back in 1988. Ammonium perchlorate is used in the space shuttle SRB.

The peak explosion was approximately 1.5 MT in strength - that's in the high yield nuclear weapon category. Campers taping the plant fire from a mountain ridge almost 15 miles away clearly felt the ground tremor, and the shockwave knocked over most of them .

It was very wise to build that plant in the middle of the desert in an isolated valley. Maybe not so wise to build it on top of a natural gas pipeline