Oil Storage and Transportation: Minimizing The Risks

Crude oil can be dangerous and capable of doing a great deal of damage in a short amount of time. Preventing serious accidents and hazardous situations should always be a priority. Good design, regular maintenance, and proper training all come together to create safe, reliable transportation and industrial storage solutions.

Safer by Design

In designing industrial storage solutions, you are well served by remembering the basics. In order to burn, fire requires three things: heat, a combustible material, and oxygen. Oxygen is readily available in the air, and the oil itself, along with the fumes it gives off, is a combustible material. This combination makes pumping stations a prime candidate for an incident.

Pumping stations should be kept as cool as possible and pumping should only occur when truck engines are turned off. Smoking and anything that involves combustion must be prohibited from the area. Pumping stations must also be well ventilated so escaping gasses do not have a chance to build up.

Storage tanks must be properly grounded to avoid any electrical sparks, and they should be equipped with gas detection systems so operators can be alerted to dangerous situations. It should go without saying that all storage units should be built according to code.

Maintaining Safe Conditions

Degradation of storage and pumping units can lead to dangerous conditions and preventable incidents. Therefore, storage facilities require a stringent routine of inspection and maintenance. Trained inspectors should check for gas leaks on a daily basis, and all workers must be required to wear rubber-soled shoes. Smoking, cell phones, and anything else that could cause a spark must be prohibited from the area.

Maintenance tasks should never be completed with battery operated tools, as they are more likely to spark than hard-wired tools. In addition, all tools and extension cords should be in good repair as both are potential sources of sparks that could result in fire.

Training for Prevention

Industrial storage solutions are inherently dangerous. There is no safety procedure or any piece of safety equipment that is going to be effective without proper training. The education begins with the storage facilities:

• Operation supervisors must know the purpose of each storage unit, and must use each tool and device correctly.
• Inspectors must perform thorough inspections rather than simply report gas accumulation figures.
• Inspectors should understand the proper use of each storage tank, where it can fail, what the first signs of failure are, and how to stop any degradation before it reaches the point of failure.

Training should be an ongoing activity, not a one-time event. Safety procedures should be reviewed with all employees on a regular basis, and all training materials should be frequently updated. Emergency procedures should be practiced and memorized by all workers so there is never any confusion or delay when incidents do occur.

7 Myths About Keystone XL, And The Real Story

In the commotion surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline project, from environmental concerns to economic claims, it’s hard to pick out the real story. Here, we address seven rumours, from the frivolous to the serious, to try to uncover the truth.

Myth: Keystone XL Exports Internationally 

This myth is based on pure misinformation, but somehow it is still shared. Oddly, rumours persist that the pipeline would export oil to China, but that’s not in the plans. Keystone XL brings Canadian oil to refineries in the Gulf Coast. These refineries are locked in to long-term contracts to receive oil from Keystone XL, so the reality is that the oil will not be exported internationally.

Myth: Oil Transported by Keystone XL Will Have an Elevated Spillage Risk

This myth stems from the idea that synthetic crude and dilbit, which will be transported by the Keystone XL pipeline need to be heated or are more likely to corrode pipes, leading to spills.

In fact, the pipeline will be built to much higher safety standards than other pipelines. And it’s untrue that the oil would be more corrosive than standard crude—no heating, no major compositional changes.

Myth: Keystone XL Would Increase The Price At The Pump

This myth is mostly a misunderstanding of how oil prices actually work. Gasoline prices are determined by international, not local markets. We saw the result of that when OPEC decided to keep their production levels high and prices plummeted. It’s incredibly rare for one source to determine prices.

That said, Keystone XL has a comparable production capacity to half the current U.S. imports from the Persian Gulf. This stable source of oil could actually lower the price at the pump by making refineries less endangered by global disruptions.

Myth: Exploring the Canadian Oil Sands Will Result in Greater Greenhouse Gas Emissions

In reality, crude oil from the oil sands has very similar well-to-retail pump greenhouse gas emissions to other common sources in the U.S., such as Venezuelan crude. Furthermore, producers aren’t leaving greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands to chance. Rather, they are actively working to improve the environmental impact of development.

Myth: Stopping Keystone Would Stop Canadian Tar Sands Exploration

This claim is pretty unlikely. The Canadian oil sands production will have a market, whether or not Americans are purchasing from it. It’s much more likely that if Keystone XL wasn’t approved, Canadian producers would just export their oil elsewhere, likely to Asian markets. In that scenario, it’s not like North Americans would stop needing oil, and would likely continue to import from distant Middle Eastern sources. Of course, all of that shipping takes energy, which means it requires oil. From that angle, stopping Keystone could actually increase overall greenhouse gas emissions as all of this oil moves around the world.

Additionally, the government doesn’t predict any change to oil sands production whether the pipeline goes ahead or not.

Myth: Low Oil Prices Have Made Keystone XL Irrelevant

This is far from the truth. Keystone XL pipeline is a part of an infrastructure to help North Americans become more oil self-sufficient, by connecting refineries and sources safely across the continent. With elevated safety measures and fewer shipping costs involved, Keystone XL remains as relevant as ever.

Myth: American Workers Don’t Benefit From the Keystone XL Pipeline

The American Petroleum Institute estimates that Keystone will create as many as 343,000 U.S. jobs in four years. Even conservative estimates from the government forecasts the creation of 42,000 jobs during the construction phase alone. Many of those will be high-wage manufacturing and construction jobs, which help families live comfortably.

In the long term, things look even better. The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) estimates that oil sands activity will increase the total U.S. GDP by $210 billion over the next twenty years. Jobs look good in the long view as well, as CERI predicts 600,000 jobs could be supported by the pipeline in the same period.