|
Salt Cavern Information
Made Available on Web
Salt caverns have been used for decades to
store various hydrocarbon products (for example, the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve facility in Louisiana). Salt
caverns are also used for waste disposal. In recent years
nine facilities have been permitted to dispose of
non-hazardous oil field wastes. It is known that others are
planned.
In the 1990s Argonne National Laboratory
studied and prepared a number of reports on salt deposits
and caverns and the use of those caverns to dispose of
non-hazardous waste materials from oil and gas operations.
In 1999 Argonne received funding from the DOE to develop and
organize this information into a salt cavern website hosted
on a DOE website. Recent organizational changes led to this
material not being available online. Information has now
been reorganized and added to the Argonne web site at
http://
web.ead.anl.gov/saltcaverns/.
The site is organized into several sections
including an overview of salt caverns, the geographical
distribution of salt deposits in the U.S., a description of
cavern siting and design criteria, the various uses for salt
caverns, studies funded by the DOE and links to web sites
containing useful information on salt caverns and related
topics.
MMS 2006 SAFE
Award Winners
Winners of the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) 2006
Safety Awards for Excellence (SAFE) are:
- High OCS Activity: Newfield Exploration Company
- Moderate OCS Activity: Nexen Petroleum USA, Inc.
- Drilling Contractor: TODCO
- Production Contractor: Baker Energy
Begun in 1983, the SAFE program is designed to elevate
the awareness of safety and pollution prevention, encourage
voluntary compliance, provide the public with better
understanding of the professionalism of the Outer
Continental Shelf operators, encourage excellence in safety
and pollution prevention and to demonstrate that safe practices enhance
protection of personnel. To view photos of the winners and
all the finalists go to
www.mms.gov/
awards/2006SAFEFinalists.htm.
|
2005 Safety Statistics for the Well Service
Industry
The Association of Energy Service Companies (AESC)
recently reported 2005 safety statistics. Even with the
explosive growth in activity, key measures (below) showed
improvement versus 2004 data. Data are from 51 companies
reporting their safety statistics. The experience range most
prone to injuries (both work experience on rig when injured
and job position experience when injured) is in the 1-5
years range.
LTIR (Lost Time Incident Rate): 2.25,
which is a 16.7 percent decrease from 2004
TRIR (Total Recordable Incident
Rate): 3.63, which is an 8.2% decrease from 2004
Excerpted from "2005 Safety Statistics
For The Well Service Industry," Well Servicing, March/April
2006, pp. 14-16.
5-Year Study Reveals Improving Pipeline
Spill Stats
Pipeline spills have declined steadily in the period from
1999 to 2004, both in number of spills and average spill
volumes. The statistics are gathered by the Pipeline
Performance Tracking System, a voluntary performance
tracking initiative that began in 1999. Industry
participants representing 85% of the transported crude,
refined products and highly volatile liquids (HVL) report
details on any offshore spill and any onshore spill greater
than 5 gallons. |
Individual spill
information is confidential, but the aggregate statistics
are reported annually. Some of the highlights of the most
recent report include:
- Over the 5 year period, the number of releases
declined from 650 to less than 400, while the average
volume declined from 130 bbl to less than 80.
- Facilities spills (pumps, metering stations,
storage) are still the most numerous at around 190, but
showed a 35% reduction in the last two years due to
increased awareness and emphasis on risk management.
- The reduction in facilities failures is due
primarily to a sharp decline in equipment or non-pipe
failures.
- Corrosion, once the leading cause of onshore
pipeline failure, has declined from 130 incidents to 40,
while third party damage and other causes remained
relatively flat.
- The number of small spills (less than 5 gallons) has
declined by 50% over the 5-year period, while larger
spills have declined only slightly.
- Crude oil spills show the steepest decline over the
period, refined products somewhat less and spills of
HVLs are relatively flat
Excerpted from "5-Year Study Shows Pipeline Spills
Reduced," Oil & Gas Journal, April 24, 2006, pp. 68-72.
|
Environmental
