August 31, 2007 by admin.

“Tough” Oil and Hydrogen-Sulphide.

By folc.ca

According to oil-industry experts and analysts, we are beginning to enter the second half of the history of oil exploration — not as far as time goes but with respect to the volumes of recoverable oil. It is ever more difficult and expensive — even politically and financially risky — to find and explore oil reserves now.

Oil from the Alberta tar-sands is expensive to mine and contains between 4.5 percent to 7 percent sulphur, while oil in Kazakhstan is as deep as 5,000 metres or more and contains easily up to 19 percent hydrogen-sulphide at enormous pressures.

To sell the massive and escalating volumes of the waste sulphur recovered from oil and gas into a “supply-glutted” world market is so tough that the oil companies would do it at just about any price - give it away and even give money to boot, if they only could find someone who will take it off their hands. The sulphur removed from oil or natural gas needs to be stored somewhere, a good portion of it quite likely at our backdoor, less than just two miles east of Bruderheim, Alberta.

To get that Kazakhstan oil to market is another issue, fraught with geo-political complications.

The experts agree that world oil output will begin to decline by about 2012. However, a country self-sufficient in energy sources may have to think about how it will stay also independent. That is something that for some countries has already proven itself to be a hard thing to do.

On Tap: The Tough-Oil Era

There is, however, a second aspect to peak-oil theory, which is no less relevant when it comes to the global-supply picture — one that is far easier to detect and assess today. Peak-oil theorists have long contended that the first half of the world’s oil to be extracted and consumed will be the easy half. They are referring, of course, to the oil that’s found on shore or near to shore; oil close to the surface and concentrated in large reservoirs; oil produced in friendly, safe, and welcoming places.

The other half — what (if they are right) is left of the world’s petroleum supply — is the tough oil. They mean oil that’s buried far offshore or deep underground; oil scattered in small, hard-to-find reservoirs; oil that must be obtained from unfriendly, politically dangerous, or hazardous places. An oil investor’s eye-view of our energy planet today quickly reveals that we already seem to be entering the tough-oil era. This explains the growing pessimism among industry analysts as well as certain changes in behavior in the energy marketplace….(Full Story)

“Tough” oil is oil that may cause wars to be fought, more easily now than in the preceding “easy” oil era. Some writers have something to say about that, too.

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Posted in Community & Industry, Sulphur Logistics, Hydrogen-Sulphide | Print | No Comments »

August 29, 2007 by admin.

Sofia News AgencyThe Regional Environmental Inspectorate registered Wednesday afternoon sulphur dioxide pollution in the village of Galabovo, Central Bulgaria.

The automatic station of the eco inspectorate detected levels of the chemical substance in the village, which twice exceeded the allowed threshold.

The output of the two nearby power stations and the power distribution factory is the reason for the pollution, local authorities said.

The operators have been ordered to reduce the power and to use coal with lower sulphur content.

That is the second time when the place faces such pollution after the same was registered in the beginning of March.  (Source)
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Related stories:

• Sulphur Dioxide Poisons Bulgarian Village of Galabovo
• Enel Defends Position over Sulphur Dioxide Pollution in Bulgarian Village
• Clean Coal Processing (SO2 removal)

Posted in Community & Industry, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

August 28, 2007 by admin.

Foreign Policy Association — Central Asia

Kazakhstan vs. ENI: Showdown

….in general oil majors operating in Kazakhstan are dealing with some seemingly unresolvable problems. We don’t like sulfur in our fuels, for instance; sour gas creates more pollution and is harder to refine. When that sulfur is extracted out, it goes into a world market that is supply-glutted. Many of the environmental violations for oil in Kazakhstan have to do with a sulfur that nobody wants, causes pollution, and that oil companies would be more than happy to get rid of at almost any low price you could name….(Full Story)
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Right, and how will HAZCO make money on the sulphur it alleges it will produce in Bruderheim for the world market?

As to “any low price you could name”, oil companies operating in Alberta gave about $10 for each tonne of sulphur that anyone took off their hands in the second half of 2001, and they gave their sulphur away for nothing in the summer of 2007.

Right now the plant-gate price of sulphur is $40 a tonne, far short of recovering the cost of production or of shipping it to Vancouver and loading it there for export.

Nevertheless, even though there is no money to be made by the Canadian economy for exporting sulphur, sulphur processors, shippers and handlers get paid and make money.

Guess out of whose wallet that money comes. — folc.ca

Posted in Community & Industry, Emission Incidents & Issues, Hazco, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics | Print | No Comments »

August 28, 2007 by admin.

Edmonton SUN

Syncrude operation too smelly
Alberta government orders company to cut back emissions

By CP

Alberta Environment has ordered oil and gas producer Syncrude to cut back emissions from an operation in northern Alberta.

The government says the move is in response to public complaints about the smell, as well as monitoring of hydrogen sulphide near the company’s effluent pond on Mildred Lake, northwest of Fort McMurray.

Under the order, Syncrude must develop an interim action plan by Sept. 4 to minimize hydrogen sulphide and ammonia emissions from the pond, with a long-term plan due no later than Oct. 1….(Full Story)

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Posted in Community & Industry, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Related Construction Costs, Hydrogen-Sulphide | Print | No Comments »

August 27, 2007 by admin.

DNRonline.com

Hydrogen Sulfide Culprit in Deaths at Briery Branch Farm
Toxic Gas From Manure Pit Killed Five People

By Jeff Mellott

MONTEZUMA — A deadly gas that killed five people on a farm south of Briery Branch in early July was Hydrogen Sulfide, and not methane as authorities had previously reported….

A meter reading of the gas at the edge of the pit by rescue workers, Phillips said, was at 700 parts per million.

The amount is well above the 500 parts per million that would have been sufficient to fatally incapacitate someone in a matter of moments.

“Anybody who had gone down there without a complete supply of air for themselves would not have made it back,” Phillips said of the manure pit at the Showalter farm….(Full Story)

Posted in Emission Incidents & Issues, Hydrogen-Sulphide | Print | No Comments »

August 24, 2007 by admin.

Bloomberg Television NewsImperial Oil Is Fined C$100,000 for Sulfur Emissions (Update1)

By Ian McKinnon

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada’s largest oil company, was fined C$100,000 ($95,039) for violating air- quality standards in Ontario. (Full Story)

Posted in Fines & Penalties, Community & Industry, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »