West Coast Oil Tanker Traffic

[Sparky]

Pamela Anderson on oil tankers.

• Video Link

[Sparky]

Motion calls for oil tanker ban off B.C. coast

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Mot...#ixzz17gJEhUy6

Here is some info on Vancouver, a terminus for oil from the tar sands.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/06/03/VancouverOilTankers/

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Sparky

Pamela Anderson on oil tankers.

• Video Link

What did she mean about no tank top ?
Is there another video?

[Baro]

So we as a province will stop USING oil too right? I mean otherwise we're just selfishly shifting the risk on other people.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by Bingo

What did she mean about no tank top ?
Is there another video?

No, the other video is not for family viewing. How about a pic?

Looks like she could use some warranty work.

[Bernard]

The majority of the tankers coming through the Strait of Juan de Fuca are headed to US ports. There have also been oil tankers in the Vancouver harbour for generations.

People are also ignoring the fact that in the last 20 years there has been dramatic changes to oil tankers and the number of oil spills and their severity is way down. During the same time the amount of oil being moved by tanker has dramatically risen.

In general, the number of size of all oil spills is down globally. There has only been one spill to make the top 20 list in 18 years, the BP one this year, though it is the biggest one ever

[Baro]

I love the hypocrisy of people with these black signs on their lawns against the oil industry and tankers in our region while a brand new SUV sits in their driveway.

[Bingo]

I say build a pipeline through Alaska, across the Bering Straight and into Asia. If they want our oil let the Asians pay for it, and forget about using the oil guzzling tankers.

You already have Pam Anderson on side, and I am looking up Sarah Palin's phone number right now.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I say build a pipeline through Alaska, across the Bering Straight and into Asia. If they want our oil let the Asians pay for it, and forget about using the oil guzzling tankers.

You already have Pam Anderson on side, and I am looking up Sarah Palin's phone number right now.

The oil market is in the US, not Asia. The Asians buy coal from Robert's Bank.

You just made me think....why are we exporting crude, when we could refine it ourselves?

It's like shipping raw logs instead of shipping value added finished lumber.

Don't give Sarah the number of Pam's plastic surgeon.

[Baro]

We export things because there just isn't money to be made processing at home. It's sad, but labour and "cost of doing business" is so much cheaper in other countries it's just not worth it to do it at home. No environmental regulations, no labour rights. How do you fix that? Well you either let them drag your human rights and environment down to compete (no thanks), counter their cheap labour with superior technology (we've lost our tech edge and don't seem to care to invest in it anymore), or impose some sort of tarrif based on the human rights and environmental issues of the producing nation (people would revolt if their dora backpack cost 50% more at walmart despite the huge creation in jobs with actual basic human rights)

So, we just export resources instead, since they HAVE to be exacted inside canada following canadian laws. IF it was legal our entire forestry and resource sectors would be made "special administrative areas" that followed Dubai law and our local companies would fire everyone and replace them with borderline slaves.

[Sparky]

^ Sad but probably true. Thanks for that. I will go back to work now.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Sparky

You just made me think....why are we exporting crude, when we could refine it ourselves?

Who would ever let you build a refinery, even if it is state-of-the-art, and replacing a 1960's or 1970s one? Environmentalists would stop it.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Baro

So we as a province will stop USING oil too right? I mean otherwise we're just selfishly shifting the risk on other people.

Sort of like the tons of asbestos we ship to the second and third world, right? They cut it by hand to make building panels.

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/deadly-cn.htm

In 1997, Canada exported 430,000 tonnes of asbestos - more than 96% of production - most of it to the developing world. Canada is the world's second-largest exporter of asbestos after Russia.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

Who would ever let you build a refinery, even if it is state-of-the-art, and replacing a 1960's or 1970s one? Environmentalists would stop it.

Then the Environmentalists should be forced to walk.

[Sparky]

I am headed to Fort McMurray on Monday where the real oil action is. I will bring back some current news on where this industry is headed.

[sebberry]

Originally Posted by Sparky

I am headed to Fort McMurray on Monday where the real oil action is. I will bring back some current news on where this industry is headed.

Can you score some cheap gas for me please too?

[LJ]

Originally Posted by Sparky

.

You just made me think....why are we exporting crude, when we could refine it ourselves?

.

Umm I think cause gas blows up real easy, oil just burns if subjected to hot enough temps.

[Sparky]

OK in all fairness, somebody somewhere is turning crude oil into gasoline so that we can drive to work in the morning. Is that a bad thing?

Some might say yes that is. But do we need it? Yes. Can we do without it? No.

Is refining crude oil into gasoline environmentally destructive? I don't know.

But somebody is doing it, most likely on the same planet that we are on.

Is it any more responsible to perform this dastardly deed somewhere else....out of sight...out of mind...so we can feel better about driving our cars?

I think its time to come to grips with reality and establish clean guidelines and procedures with regards to refining our own resources here instead of shipping (what some would perceive as our shame) to other countries out of guilt.

I am assuming we need to ship the finished product back to our gas stations.

That's a lot of shipping.

[Bernard]

Vancouver is home to a bunch of refineries. They are all below SFU.

Oil is refine close to where it is used because you create multiple products with the oil and it is trucked to the locations where they are used. Crude oil is the bulk product that refineries all over the world need.

Refineries are hard to build because there are few neighbourhoods that will accept one being built. We need more refineries in North America because the existing ones are working flat out.

As to raw log exports, in almost all years, BC imports more logs than it exports. Our raw log exports are a drop in the bucket for our timber harvest.

If the oil is not shipped via Kitimat, it will be shipped via Blaine in Washington. A larger pipeline will run the oil to the tanker port there.

[phx]

Originally Posted by Bernard

Vancouver is home to a bunch of refineries. They are all below SFU.

I don't think there is any refining done there now. I understand the tanks there hold products piped in from the refineries in Alberta.

[LJ]

Originally Posted by Bernard

If the oil is not shipped via Kitimat, it will be shipped via Blaine in Washington. A larger pipeline will run the oil to the tanker port there.

Where is the tanker port in Blaine?

I know of the Cherry Point refinery and tanker port but I was not aware there was one in Blaine.

[ignoranceisbliss]

Maybe these activists should use the energy and time they spend complaining about the oil tankers, put it all into education, put all your heads together and come up with an alternative to oil. One other comment to the oil ban activists, how do you people get to your little demonstrations, do you all use your little bycicles. I work in the tugboat industry and the activists had a little demonstration in the Vancouver harbour, yes on boats that use oil to run, did i see anyone paddling there little canoe, NO. VANCOUVER IS FULL OF COMPLAINERS WHO JUMP ON A BAND WAGON WITHOUT RESEARCHING ALL THE FACTS. If these people think that they can go without oil products I challenge you to sell your cars, if you use any gas in your houses get rid of it, use wood, oh no not wood that would give you something else to complain about, useing our trees for energy, what is the world comeing to. I know, go live in a cave, because if we listened to everything you complained about we might as well be back to the stone age.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by phx

I don't think there is any refining done there now. I understand the tanks there hold products piped in from the refineries in Alberta.

The Chevron Burnaby Refinery

Located on the scenic shores of spectacular Burrard Inlet near Vancouver, the refinery produces petroleum products from Canadian oil and gas. Raw product arrives at the refinery from northern British Columbia and Alberta via the 1,200-kilometre Kinder Morgan Pipe Line. Here, using the most modern refinery technology, crude and synthetic oils, condensate and butanes are transformed into 50,000 to 55,000 barrels of motor gasolines, diesel and jet fuels, asphalts, heating fuels, heavy fuel oils, butanes and propane every day.

http://www.chevron.ca/operations/refining/default.asp

[Holden West]

^Hm, I did not know refining was done locally.

Although it appears a drop in the bucket (or barrel), as it produces only 55,000 barrels of finished product per day compared to the 3.35 million barrels produced per day.

Meanwhile, this story is from a few days ago:

[Chevron] says the area of the refinery that is contaminating the groundwater has been in operation since the 1950s.

Chevron continues to work to locate the source of the leak, including the use of video technology within the refinery's effluent system.

"We've found nothing to indicate a chronic or current contributing new source of material into the ground under the refinery."

Although the leak into Burrard Inlet became known last April, the company has been aware of it at the refinery since 2004 due to a perimeter monitoring program, Lord said, and increased the number of monitoring wells since 2009 following evidence of oil movement in the area.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technolo...#ixzz17uwYfYJE

That's a huge chunk of waterfront property but I can't imagine it being redeveloped easily after nearly a century of contamination.

Well, obviously we are all hypocrites for consuming oil while decrying the effects. However, we would be in better shape if we reduced our thirst for it and fixed the pricing subsidy that makes oil unnaturally cheap compared to better alternative energy sources.

[jklymak]

Originally Posted by Holden West

Well, obviously we are all hypocrites for consuming oil while decrying the effects. However, we would be in better shape if we reduced our thirst for it and fixed the pricing subsidy that makes oil unnaturally cheap compared to better alternative energy sources.

Whole heartedly agree. The argument that you shut up and allow unfettered use or else shut up and go live in a cave is pretty weak. Removing the subsidies and increasing the usage tax to compensate for environmental damage done would do wonders for reducing our use and encouraging alternative energy sources.