Giant Blast at UK Oil Terminal
Posted by Stuart Staniford on December 11, 2005 - 5:23am
From the BBC:
Three large explosions have rocked a fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire shooting flames hundreds of feet into the sky. Police say there are casualties and emergency services are at the scene. The first blast happened at 0603 GMT at the Buncefield fuel depot, close to junction 8 of the M1 motorway, 10 miles from Luton airport.It is being treated as an accident and rumours that a plane was involved are unfounded, said a police spokesman.
Witnesses said another two explosions followed the first at 0626 GMT and 0627 GMT. Eyewitness Sam Matton, who lives half a mile from the depot, told BBC News: "The sky is sort of orange. The flames have got to be 60ft up in the air."
The area near the site has been evacuated, while police have advised residents living nearby to keep their windows and doors closed due to fumes. Many houses have been damaged, with some reporting feeling effects from the explosion as far away as Oxfordshire, while it was heard in Surrey and Norfolk.
Malcolm Stewart, who drives a tanker at the terminal, said there were 20 tanks on the site, each holding three million gallons of fuel.
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“Considering the many productive uses of petroleum, burning it for fuel is like burning a Picasso for heat.”
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Two or more at the same time is probably sabotage.
They may have cameras all over this place, and were able to watch and see the whole thing get started. Just a guess though.
Reuters article here
No fuel shortage?
Facility + Product. Is there any way to calculate that at this point?
How long does it take to build a fuel depo?
How long does it take to make 1.4 million barels of refinded product?
I just checked EIA's latest backissue:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/ipsr/IPMbackissues.html
The UK had 107 mil bbl of oil stock in August. Now, after discounting what they sent to us this fall, maybe 2% of their 'on hand' oil products just went up in smoke. Hemel Hempstead looks to be off the M1, a major north-south route in England. I cannot imagine there are many depots this large in the country.
Does anyone know if natural gas was process or stored at this facility?
Such facilities have an inherently high risk, which is usually successfully managed, but at times people do screw up. During construction and maintenance there are many more opportunities for screwing up than during routine operations. A large empty space full of hydrocarbon vapors can make a pretty impressive boom.
Lots of TV coverage (esp BBC News 24); 39 casualties, two seriously, M1 motorway closed -this is the main road from London to the Midlands/North. The please are primarily telling everyone not to panic and run out and buy fuel.
I'm not going to speculate on causes. The Provisional IRA did try to blow up a gas facility in Warrington in 1993.
Hemel Hempstead, UK, suffered through a huge oil explosion early this morning. I have visited this area several times and can't imagine what force this powderkeg unleashed. From notes I gathered from someone I know who lives less than 20 miles SE of HH, this thing essentially jolted everyone up, not quite as if an earthquake had occurred, but more like that something had fallen down in the house. The explosion set off a black cloud that moved southeast and then south reaching the outskirts of London in the early evening. The really thick black smoke had the faint whiff of benzene.
Hemel Hempstead resides right off the M1 expressway and has a residential feel with open spaces and farmland. Apparently, most of the buildings had their windows imploded with some roofs going up. The oil depot provided jet fuel to Heathrow and Luton airports (the latter just north of there). The most recent re-fueler truck stationed there happened to escape the major explosion. But cascading explosions also occurred which continued throughout the day.
I checked to see if there were any more rumbles in the UK for potential terrorist attacks on any facilities.
We don't know the split between different products, if there's a high proportion of aviation fuel the airports could be affected most.
Whilst there's no fuel shortage (no refinery or terminal affected) this has to cause logistical problems. BBC News 24 just said Heathrow get around a third of their fuel from there via pipeline that is now shut and that they have 48 hrs of fuel stored at the airport. Is there the spare trucking capacity to compensate?
I understand LNG terminal fires are much worse than oil fires...
The BBC news website is probably the best bet for coverage, including video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/default.stm
Some pertinent bits of data that I've heard which seem reliable:
This site is the 5th biggest of its type in UK, there are 43.
The site held several kinds of fuel: petrol (gasolene), diesel, aviation fuel.
Apparently the northern half of the site is burning, the southern half is not, so there is plenty of fuel that could still go up.
UK authorities are very adept at hiding the truth when they wish to. The 7th July tube bombings were being reported as 'electrical problems' for over 90 minutes till a live phone call said 'I just saw a bomb blow the top off a bus' (or words to that effect). But this time it seems near certain it was accidental ignition of gasolene fumes, I don't suspect terrorism.
Some lemming-humans (apologies, lemmings, for that unfair smear) are panic buying petrol just in case petrol panic buying causes shortages. Some smarter humans who run petrol stations have maybe deliberately shut to annoy these fools and perhaps sit behind smash proof windows at the closed petrol stations pulling funny faces at their disappointed customers.
Does it mean the raging hordes of Sauron are marching from the East? Almost certainly not, but if you live in Ithilien please seek a more local informed opinion.
A bit more news has emerged:
"In total, 20 petrol tanks were involved, each said to hold three million gallons of fuel."
From this page which also has a diagram of the site comfirming that only the northern half has been consumed so far:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4517962.stm
But use the main BBC UK news site for latest info.
What about the drought in the Amazon and the deforestation taking place there?
Is this earth invincible to all this?
The fires after the first gulf war were far worse than this. Yes it was an ecological disaster, but the world survived.
Now mind you, oil/gasoline/etc is toxic. If it were me, I wouldn't be keen to hang around if I could smell something in the air.
Cantarell has peaked. It's official from PEMEX - in spanish (hat tip APG from www.crisisenergetica.org).
"En los primeros cinco días de diciembre de este año, la producción total del Complejo Cantarell fue de 2.008 millones de barriles por día, representando 59 por ciento de la producción nacional...."
"In the first five days of december of this year, total prodcution from Cantarell complex was 2.008 millons of barrels per day, representing a 59% of national (mexican) production...."
"La estimación de nuestros modelos ..... indica que los niveles de producción en el complejo Cantarell para 2006 se ubicarán en 1.905 millones de barriles por día, aproximadamente. Esta magnitud es 6 por ciento inferior respecto a la producción de 2005 de 2.032 millones de barriles por día, y es consistente con las proyecciones previas dadas a conocer por PEMEX. Para los años 2007 y 2008, las producciones estimadas son de 1.683 y 1.430 millones de barriles por día, respectivamente......"
"The estimation from our models ... indicates that the production levels in the Cantarell complex will be aprox 1.905 millons of barrels per day by 2006. This magnitude is 6 % less than 2005 production of 2.032 mbd, and it is consistent with previous projections showed by PEMEX. For 2007 and 2008 estimated productions are 1.683 and 1.430 mbd, respectively...."
2.0 mbd 2005
1.9 mbd 2006
1.6 mbd 2008
Fernando
2.0 mbd 2005
1.9 mbd 2006
1.6 mbd 2007
1.4 mbd 2008
Then click on one of the following:
"Reporte Anual 2002"
"Reporte Anual 2003"
"Reporte Anual 2004"
A new window will be opened. It's in spanish and english.
Fernando
The BBC is stating
The AP via yahoo is stating
AFP via yahoo reports
Reuters does not seem to be reporting numbers.
Spin?
Lack of good info?
Inaccurate reporting?
All of the above?
Have there been any official statements regarding the volume of fuel involved?
- I live very close to this depot and know quite well what is going on (much of the reporting is wildly inacurate or out of context!)
- I used to work at the BBC so have seen their sloppy reporting methods at first hand (BBC is far from the worst!)
Persoanly I think that journalists are just too slack. It is not the case that they deliberatlty feed us BS, more that they pass on the BS that they are given without checking the factsLocal news sources are best. Try: www.hemelonline.co.uk for this story
Was anyone else aware that LNG is being transported by truck in the US? I was in a small Texas Hill Country town this weekend, and I was dumbfounded to see an LNG truck driving down Main Street.
I used to live in the UK as a youngster (Cirencester), and have only the fondest memories of you fellows across the pond.
This depot is large (by UK standards!) 100 acres is correct. I do not know the volume of fule stored, best source of info is site owners (Total) website. I do know the following:
The site stored petrol (gasoline) deisel and heating oil for delivery by road tanker to filling stations and homes.
The aviation fuel mostly goes by pipeline to Heathrow, but some does go by road to Luton.
There is no LPG or LNG storage at this depot
I was away on sunday, but i was awoken at about 6:05am by a phone call from my mother-in-law hystericaly telling us that a plane had crashed outside her house!
I saw the blaze last night and it is indeed spectacular, although latest reports say it is all but out by now.
I am sure that this will have quite a big impact on London. Hemel Hemepstead is a main stratigic distributuion point for much of the London area, being located on both M25 London outer ring road and M1 main North/South route (freeway).
This is not just about fuel; many production and disribution units have also been destroyed, as these were stupidly built recently right next to the fuel depot, so several major supermarkets and other retailers may also have big problems
My broadband is no longer working; the CATV headend has also been damaged. In Hemel you could not buy petrol, milk or bread today, but this is largely due to knee-jerk panic buying!
personaly I hope for some significant disruption; perhaps this will awaken some of the sleeping sheple to the dangers of our dependence on unreiable fuel suplies
Not surprising, so much for the tosh a few days ago about there being no supply problems due to the fire.