MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Venezuelan refinery ‘cooling down’; independent report points to serious lack of maintenance
Venezuela is carrying out an “exhaustive” inspection of its biggest refinery before attempting to restart processing after extinguishing a four-day fire yesterday caused by an explosion that killed 48 people and left hundreds homeless. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rules“We’re carrying out a cooling process of all areas that suffered intense heat generated by the fire,” Ramirez said. “Because we are dispatching, because we have sufficient storage, because we have all our plants in perfect shape, we have no need to hurry to re-activate an operation.”
Aug 30th, 2012 - 04:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0RIP 48 Innocent souls who sadly are also in no hurry. The curse of the black gold strikes again.
“Strong winds could cause the fires to reignite ” - Crikey - what sort of wind do they get in Venezuela? Ever heard of strong winds starting fires before?
Aug 30th, 2012 - 06:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0What that really means is that the fires haven't been completely extinguished.
#2
Aug 30th, 2012 - 07:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0Hi Idle hands,
Tank fires are put out with foam which eventually sits on the surface of the burning hydrocarbon blocking the oxygen supply to the fire, the oil and surrounding metal is still extremely hot for hours (given the volume), the wind can cause the foam creating the blanket to break up and expose the hot oil and reform the fire triangle and then re ignition. It's only the motion effect of the wind which is the problem until the mass cools below re-ignition temperatures, this is a common issue when dealing with tank farm fires and re ignitions are not uncommon. They could have explained it better in the article ;-)
“the government's refinery manager said the explosion wasn't due to a lack of maintenance, according to government television. Chavez has also said that such suggestions are “irresponsible” because investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the accident”
Aug 30th, 2012 - 12:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You can't have it both ways boys. If the investigators haven't determined the cause you can't rule out a lack of maintenance as being a factor.
Chavez should take a good look at this. That's what all his refineries will look like if he carries out his threat to attack the Falkland Islands with his Malvinista chums.
Aug 30th, 2012 - 01:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Even Hugo Chavez is aware of the ineptness of Venezuela's 'experts' and 'engineers'. Despite his bluster, the Venezuelan people must be thanking God that Chavez at least had the good sense to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12768148
Of course if any nuclear facilities were ever built in Venezuela they would be of Chinese or Russian design and construction. Perhaps Venezuela would construct the workers accommodation, guard house and perimeter fence, then claim to have built a nuclear power station all by themselves. A bit off topic, but like Argentina did with their Pampa jet trainer, the one they got the Germans in to build for them, bought some engines from the US, strapped them (and some bombs) to their German glider, called it 'Argentine' and then got Putridjelly to threaten us with it :))
I live in Uruguay and certainly do not want a Russian or Chin built nuclear plant anywhere!
Aug 30th, 2012 - 02:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The Russians are still living down the biggest nuclear problem ever and the Chin can't even build roads and railways that don't fall down on their own.
Lack of maintenance? Sounds like maintenance of Argentina trains and this have a lot in common.
Aug 30th, 2012 - 11:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#5 Chavez has a lot of good sense. If its found that the way he runs the oil industry in any way contributed to this tragedy, I'm sure changes will be made accordingly. It just won't make things any safer if profit becomes the only goal...
Sep 04th, 2012 - 02:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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