News Extra

Gas leak in India kills 12 people as hundreds fall ill

Agas leak in southern India killed 12 people on May 7 as hundreds of people fell ill with burning eyes and breathing diffi culties. Hundreds more people were also evacuated after the leak at the LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh state.

South Korea-based LG Chem which owns the impacted factory said that the leak, which was fi rst detected at around 03:00 local time, was brought under control a few hours later. Around 800 people from surrounding villages were taken to hospital shortly after the incident.

In a statement, LG Chem said that it was assessing the extent of the damage from the leak and was working with relevant organisations to protect residents and employees. The chemical company added that a night shift maintenance worker fi rst discovered the leak which was emitting a gas known to cause nausea and dizziness.

LG Chem has opened an investigation to fi nd out how the leak was caused. The plant has been closed since March 24 due to India’s coronavirus lockdown but has been preparing to resume operations in recent days.

The BBC reports that India’s State Industries Minister Goutam Reddy said proper procedures and guidelines were not followed during the plant’s re-opening. A local police offi cial was also quoted as saying the gas had been left in a tank due to the lockdown which caused a heatproducing chemical reaction to occur. The heat could then have caused the leak.

Police attended the scene shortly after the leak was discovered but had to evacuate the area immediately due to the toxic gas. The gas spread through local villages causing a panic amongst locals. Social media footage shows distressed residents running out of their homes, some falling unconscious in the street.

Reuters news agency reports that several employees were inside the plant at the time of the leak which spread across approximately three kilometres (two miles).

According to its website, the LG Polymers plant makes polystyrene products for manufacturing electric fan blades, cups and cutlery and containers for cosmetics.

The BBC quotes a senior offi cial from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board as saying the leaked gas could have been styrene which is usually kept refrigerated. Styrene is highly fl ammable and produces a poisonous gas when heated.

Factory explosion kills one, injures two in Italy

An explosion at a plastics factory near Naples, Italy killed one person and injured two others on May 5. The incident happened at the Adler Plastic works in Ottaviano. One of the injured people was transported to hospital in a critical condition.

Local media reported that the blast could be heard from several kilometres away, while witnesses reported seeing a large plume of black smoke rising from the factory premises.

The factory had only reopened on May 4 after the Italian government eased the lockdown in the country following the coronavirus pandemic.

Italian news website TGCOM24 reports that some employees who managed to escape the factory said the blast may have been caused by a gas cylinder exploding. One person was taken to a hospital in Naples while the critically injured person was taken to hospital in Nola on the outskirts of Naples.

The Adler Plastic works had been operating with reduced staff working in shifts in order for employees to work safely apart. Local government offi cials recommended people closed windows and doors in the aftermath of the explosion as a precaution. An investigation into the incident has been opened.

Bangladesh to be compensated

for 2005 gas blast after $1bn lawsuit

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID) has ordered Canadian oil company Niko Resources to compensate Bangladesh for a 2005 explosion at the Chhatak gas fi eld. The blast, which occurred while Niko was drilling in the fi eld, caused considerable damage to the gas fi eld and the local environment. Bangladesh fi led a lawsuit in 2016 claiming over $1 billion in compensation.

According to The Daily Star newspaper, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told reporters during a video conference on May 3 that the ICSID had announced its verdict on February 28. The tribunal will make a fi nal recommendation on how much Bangladesh should be compensated in the coming weeks.

The explosion in January 2005 occurred at the Chhatak gas fi eld in the north east of Bangladesh while Niko Resources was drilling on the site. Niko had been invited to drill a well at the gas fi eld in 2003 by Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) which oversees the natural gas fi eld.

A decade after the incident, Bangladesh fi led a lawsuit with the ICSID seeking $1.14 billion in compensation to be split between BAPEX and the government. Minister Hamid told reporters that the compensation was for the destruction of properties and gas reserves in the fi eld.

After a complex legal battle, the ICSID announced on February 28 that Niko had violated terms of its 2005 joint venture agreement with BAPEX and must compensate the company and Bangladesh. The tribunal found that Niko had failed to follow international standards and guidelines to conduct operations safely and the blowout was therefore caused by Niko’s negligence.

In an interview with the Dhaka Tribune newspaper, the lawyer representing Bangladesh at ICSID said the country could now be compensated around $330 million in total as Niko Resources has effectively become bankrupt following the ruling. The lawyer said the case was diffi cult to win because records and evidence were destroyed, lost, or hidden which is why Bangladesh was unable to fi le its lawsuit earlier than it did.

Legal proceedings fi rst began in 2010 when Niko went to the ICSID seeking a ruling that the company was not responsible for the blowout. Before Bangladesh fi led its own lawsuit in 2016, a Canadian court fi ned Niko after fi nding it guilty of bribing former Bangladesh Energy State Minister A. K. M. Mosharraf Hossain to obtain the rights to drilling at the Chhatak gas fi eld.

According to both the Daily Star and the Dhaka Tribune, Niko has been accused several times of corruption and bribing offi cials in order to secure one-sided drilling contracts.

The 2018 explosion - Image: Flickr / tonynetone

Canadian oil and gas company fi ned $200,000 for 2018 explosion

Irving Oil was fi ned $200,000 on April 15 after the company pleaded guilty to a safety violation relating to an October 2018 fi re and explosion at its refi nery in St John, New Brunswick. Irving was charged under New Brunswick’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

There were approximately 1,500 people on the site when the incident happened, mostly contractors working on a turnaround at the facility. Court documents show that 80 workers from 17 different companies had reported injuries as a result of the incident, although all of these were sustained while the workers were evacuating the refi nery. In all, 36 workers sustained injuries which meant they could not work – the worst of these was a broken heel bone.

The explosion in October 2018 was caused by corrosion in a reactor effl uent pipe which ruptured and ignited. The pipe had originally been installed in 1974 but was upgraded between 2004 and 2005. According to court documents, this upgrade meant that localised corrosion was able to go undetected.

Following the incident, Irving Oil inspected all its pipes for further localised corrosion but did not fi nd any pipes in a similar condition. The company also brought in experts to help advise on the cause of the incident and to help design a system which would be more resistant to corrosion in the future.

The Irving Oil facility in St John is Canada’s largest refi nery with a crude capacity of over 320,000 barrels per day, according to the company’s website.

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Chemical plant gas leak kills one, injures nine in Taiwan

Aworker in Taiwan was killed on April 23 after a gas leak at a chemical plant in the city of Kaohsiung. The worker died a day after the leak having suffered chemical burns and inhalation issues caused by the toxic gas. Nine other workers were injured in the incident

According to the Kaohsiung Labor Affairs Bureau, the workers were repairing an ethylene dichloride pump at the time of the leak. The Bureau ordered the immediate closure of the plant while an investigation into the accident began.

The plant is operated by Taiwan VCM Corporation (TVCM), a subsidiary of China General Plastics Corporation. Initial tests conducted by Kaohsiung’s Environmental Protection Bureau showed that the gas leak was limited to the plant itself.

China General Plastics Corporation released a statement on April 23 saying that the leak was caused by a broken fl ange gasket. The company said it would fi x the issue and improve its equipment maintenance in the future.

Biogas explosion injures 3

In another incident in Taiwan, an explosion at a biogas facility on May 1 injured three workers in Hualien County. Firefi ghters responded to the blast at around 09:45 local time and found three injured workers suffering from fractures and other injuries.

According to news website Taiwan English News, one worker had a fractured spine and femur and was transferred to a hospital in Taipei City. The explosion is thought to have occurred while workers were conducting welding work above a biogas collection pool. Taiwan English News reports that the blast tore through concrete walls, scattering debris across the area. The biogas facility generates electricity from livestock manure collected from the local area.

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International Gas Union releases global LNG report for 2020

The International Gas Union (IGU) has released its annual global LNG report, providing comprehensive analysis which highlights all the material changes in the industry during 2019. The 11th annual Global LNG Report features key industry updates, right across the value chain, demonstrating yet another strong year of growth for this crucial segment of the natural gas sector.

The report shows that the LNG industry continues to enhance global energy security and increase the flexibility of access to the abundant global gas supplies. In its sixth consecutive year of growth, the LNG trade increased by 13% to a total of 354.7 million tonnes (MT).

While no new consumers joined the existing 37 markets in the global LNG arena in 2019, the most recent new players have increased their intake volumes – Bangladesh, Pakistan, Poland, and Panama. At the same time, mature markets, like India, are adding new floating regasification capacity.

Floating Storage Regasification Units (FSRUs) continue to be an exciting and growing segment, improving access to modern energy and energy security worldwide. Of the 37 existing LNG import markets as of February 2020, 19 imported LNG with FSRUs, and six of those had onshore terminals as well.

Export growth came from the USA, Russia and Australia, as well as Algeria and Egypt. The US is now the third largest LNG exporter, behind Qatar and Australia, with Russia in the fourth spot. Asia Pacific and Asia remain the key centres of demand, and together they accounted for almost 70% of global LNG imports in 2018.

2019 was another record year of low prices, driven by increasing natural gas production, the commissioning of new export infrastructure and limited demand response from Asian markets. The first quarter of 2020 has proven to be very challenging for natural gas and LNG producers, as historically low gas prices have prevailed throughout the winter season. First, the increase in LNG exports combined with a mild winter across the Northern Hemisphere lead to a counter-cyclical drop in international gas prices. The bearish tone continued throughout February and March as markets around the world started to announce lockdowns in order to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

As the world has entered an unprecedented era of low LNG prices, the moment could be opportune for the environment, as there is a stronger economic case for switching from more polluting fuels to natural gas.

Gas will continue to play a vital role towards an economically and environmentally sustainable energy future. It produces less than 10% of the particulates and 50% less GHG than coal when used in power, 21% less than fuel oil in transport, and above 95% higher efficiency when used to heat homes. To reinforce this value, the industry continues to improve measurement and reduction of emissions across the full LNG value chain.

“As the cleanest burning fossil fuel, natural gas has a key role in providing reliable and cleaner energy to all. Even in the most developed markets, affordability and reliability of clean energy is a key issue and switching to natural gas offers an enormous opportunity. The IGU will continue to demonstrate the vital environmental and economic role of gas in the sustainable energy future and encourage collaboration between industry and communities towards achieving this future,” says IGU President, Joe Kang.

The International Gas Union (IGU) was founded in 1931 and is a worldwide nonprofit organisation aimed at promoting the political, technical and economic progress of the gas industry. The Union has more than 150 members worldwide on all continents, representing approximately 95% of the world gas market.

You can download the Global LNG Report in full by visiting: https://www.igu.org/ publication/302507

A hydrogen plant under construction – Image: Shutterstock

Australia and Portugal become latest countries to announce hydrogen investment

Australia and Portugal are the latest countries to announce investments to develop a hydrogen industry. On May 4, the Australian government set aside A$300 million (£154 million / US$191 million) for hydrogen projects as the country aims to develop its hydrogen industry by 2030. Elsewhere, Reuters news agency reports that Portugal is preparing several multi-billion-euro projects including a new ‘green’ hydrogen plant near the Port of Sines.

In a statement, Australia’s Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said the government is backing the country to become a world leader in hydrogen production and exports. The government recently established a A$300 million ‘Advancing Hydrogen Fund’ and said it is committed to developing a hydrogen industry that will create thousands of jobs and generate economic growth.

“The Australian Government has a strong commitment to building a hydrogen industry which will create jobs, many in regional areas, and billions of dollars in economic growth between now and 2050,” Angus Taylor said. “Importantly, if we can get hydrogen produced at under $2 a kilogram, it will be able to play a role in our domestic energy mix to bring down energy prices and keep the lights on.”

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The government has set an economic goal for hydrogen of ‘H2 under 2’ – that is hydrogen at or under A$2 per kilogram. That’s the point where hydrogen becomes competitive with alternative energy sources in large-scale deployment across Australia’s energy systems.

The fund will back projects that align with priorities under the National Hydrogen Strategy. This includes areas such as advancing hydrogen production, developing export and domestic supply chains, establishing hydrogen hubs and backing projects that build domestic demand for hydrogen.

Portugal announces plans for new hydrogen plant

In Portugal, Environment Minister Joao Matos Fernandes told Reuters that construction of a solar-powered hydrogen plant could start within a year and could attract private investment of up to 5 billion euros ($5.43 billion).

Fernandes told Reuters on April 29 that the plant would be located near the Port of Sines, a deep-water port in the south west of Portugal. The plant could start producing ‘green’ hydrogen as soon as 2023 with the aim of producing one gigawatt of electricity by 2030.

The plant is part of Portugal’s plans to establish a more environmentally friendly future after the coronavirus. Fernandes said that the country would also look to launch its second solar energy licensing auction in June after it was delayed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Representative image: Shutterstock

Fire at construction site in South Korea kills 38, injures 10

Afi re at a construction site in Icheon, South Korea killed 38 workers on April 29 and injured 10 others.

The incident in Icheon, 80 kilometres (50 miles) southeast of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, occurred at a four-storey warehouse construction site. Offi cials said that the fi re spread so quickly that many workers were unable to evacuate in time.

Yonhap news agency reports that fi re offi cials suspect the fi re was caused by an explosion during work using urethane, a combustible chemical used for insulation. Some witnesses reported hearing at least 10 explosions in total.

There had been fears that the death toll would rise much higher after many of the 78 people on site at the time of the fi re were unaccounted for at fi rst.

Offi cials believe the initial explosion occurred on an underground level of the construction site. Eight of the injured were taken to hospital in critical conditions.

South Korea’s Prime Minister Chung Syekyun ordered the interior and safety minister, as well as heads of the national fi re and police agencies, to make all resources available to the search and rescue operation.

An investigation by police and fi refi ghters continues.

Representative image: Shutterstock

Mine explosion injures fi ve people in Australia

An explosion at a mine in Queensland, Australia injured fi ve workers on May 6. The incident happened at Anglo American’s Grosvenor Coal Mine in Moranbah which is in central Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

Production was halted while paramedics attended the scene. One worker was transported to hospital in a serious condition while the four others were in critical conditions having suffered signifi cant burns to their upper bodies and damage to their respiratory systems.

All fi ve workers were transferred to a Brisbane hospital overnight in a complex evacuation which involved multiple planes. Inspectors from the Queensland Mines Inspectorate also attended the scene and opened an investigation into the explosion. The mining union said a gas ignition along the coalface is the most likely cause.

Queensland Ambulance tweeted that paramedics were on the scene treating fi ve patients with signifi cant burns after a reported workplace explosion at 15:14 local time. “Five patients were transported to Moranbah Hospital serious with signifi cant burns. Multiple aeromedical units are responding to coordinate the safe retrieval of all fi ve patients back to Brisbane after the earlier workplace explosion at Moranbah,” Queensland Ambulance also tweeted.

An independent panel of experts in mine safety was appointed following the blast to open an inquiry into the accident and suggest a suite of reforms to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future, Queensland Minister for Mines and Energy Dr Anthony Lynham said. The inquiry will conduct public hearings and will be able to call witnesses.

Study shows the top producing oil fi eld in US leaks twice as much methane as reported

Satellite observations of the Permian methane anomaly – Image: Y. Zhang Et Al / Science Advances, April 2020

Aresearch study has shown that the Permian Basin, the top producing oil fi eld in the US, is leaking twice the amount of methane than previously reported. A European Space Agency satellite measured the amount of methane emitted from the fi eld between May 2018 and March 2019 and found that around 2.7 teragrams of methane was leaking per year, representing the largest methane fl ux ever reported from a US oil and gasproducing region.

The Permian Basin, located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is around 250 miles wide and 300 miles long and accounts for more than 30% of US oil production. The research team used new satellite observations and atmospheric inverse modelling to calculate the magnitude of the emissions which is around 60% higher than the national average leakage rate. The team published their fi ndings in Science Advances and say that the high leakage rate is likely caused by extensive venting and fl aring, resulting from insuffi cient infrastructure to process and transport natural gas.

The researchers’ work demonstrates and exploits the capability of a recently spaceborne sensor, the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), to map atmospheric methane enhancements. The team was able to quantify emissions from the Permian Basin (see image), which has become one of the world’s most prolifi c oil-producing regions in recent years due to advances in drilling technologies.

TROPOMI was launched in October 2017 onboard the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite and provides column atmospheric methane measurements with higher spatial resolution and precision than was previously available, providing near-daily global coverage. TROPOMI has been used to great effect before to measure methane emissions, notably following a February 2018 blowout of an ExxonMobil natural gas well in the US which leaked more methane into the atmosphere in 20 days than many countries emit in a year.

Satellites are becoming an ever more reliable method of measuring and identifying methane emissions. In November, a satellite belonging to GHGSat Inc discovered a giant methane plume apparently deriving from unlit fl aring in the Korpezhe oil and gas fi eld in western Turkmenistan. The company said this was the fi rst time a major gas leak had been detected from space. After identifying the leak, GHGSat used diplomatic channels to alert the Turkmenistan fi eld operator who was able to stop the leaks only a few months later.

In April 2020, ExxonMobil conducted several fi eld trials of eight emerging methane detection technologies, including satellite and aerial surveillance monitoring, at nearly 1,000 sites in Texas and New Mexico to further reduce methane emissions.

The fi eld tests were evaluating the effectiveness and scalability of a range of next-generation detection technologies that in addition to satellites use drones, planes, helicopters, ground-based mobile and fi xed-position sensors. All technologies and deployment methods will be used to detect leaks and identify potential solutions that can be shared with other oil and gas operators.

Read the full research article in Science Advances at: https://advances. sciencemag.org/content/6/17/eaaz5120

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