Shall we transport it via pipeline, or on the railroad, or both?
Enbridge had sought on May 8 to limit to 5 ppm the amount of sulfide gas in the crude after the company said it found 1,200 ppm (parts per million) in one of its tanks, noting levels over 200 ppm could cause respiratory failure in seconds.
But then on May 17th Enbridge decided all they need is some advance notice.
On May 17, Enbridge said it would accept crude oil with higher levels of the potentially deadly sulfide gas with advanced notice. It also said in the FERC filing that it would shut down an injection facility should a shipper try to funnel crude with high sulfide gas through without prior approval.
FERC gets to decide.
Reuters: Oil shipper backs down in Bakken sulfide gas dispute
Fri, May 31 17:02 PM EDT
By Jeanine Prezioso
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
That H2S is also corrosive. Just wait until a cracked section of Enbridge Pipeline gets a dose of H2S. They have had pipe cracking woes:
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2004/PAR0401.pdf
And one can only imagine the toll it’s taking on those “protections” put in place, like steel and cement.
“Numerous fields have accumulations of hydrogen sulfide that will eventually destroy the integrity of both the steel and cement relied upon to provide protection against gas migration … The corrosive conditions of hydrogen sulfide are well know, and have defied engineering solutions …”
http://www.saveballona.org/gasoilfields/endreslabasin.pdf
I believe the faciility involved here was a rail loading facility. Enbridge measured H2S in one of the tanks @ 1200ppm. The loading of the tank cars still involves a person standing on top of the car being loaded. No Way can are these personnel prepared for these type concentrations.
Something needed to give. Enbridge finally just threatened to shut the thing down – rather than accept any more of the worst product from (Plains) – REGARDLESS of what the regulators decided. They also don’t want to be holding the bag when these shipments get rejected further downsream. This is how it starts.
Drill baby drill.
For the truth; that is.
Riddle me this:
Why amd how are staggering concentrations of hydrogen sulfide now being produced from these formations; well known to be low in sulfiur?
Make it good.
When the Barnett Shale first started playing out, only a few years after all the hype about it lasting for 30 years, the sulfide concentrations started going up. That’s when the TCEQ started wearing H2S detectors on their belts while still claiming the Barnett had no sulfides.
A train wreck in a populated area would be a major disaster.
That’s the way the GasHoles do it in Booger County–they say it’s all SWEET!!!! Actually it’s sour as a crock of Texas pickles!
Here’s what I’m getting at:
We know industry uses carbon disulfide mixtures and carbon disulfide precursors in various downhole fluids and processes.
Carbon disulfide decomposes to form carbonyl sulfide. In the presence of water carbonyl sulfide reacts to form H2S. Somehow; the debate gets centered on a 5ppm or 10ppm pipeline standard for H2S in the crude. This is nonsensical. None of the agencies even mentions COS content as a parameter to be measured or limited.
Please remember;
H2S is the EASY one for oil and gas producers to remove from hydrocarbon process streams. Carbonyl sulfide, as the least reactive of the organic sulfur species, is the most difficult to mitigate or remove.
There have been reports from BC that some sour gas streams have been showing up at processing facilities with COS concentrations approaching 3% (30,000 ppm).
So, when I read that Enbridge measures 1,200ppm H2S in the headspace of a tank, (tank car?) I personally have to wonder why STILL nobody wants to talk abput organic sulfur in the frack fluids. Thank you.
I don’t recall that Carbonyl sulfide is a corrosive agent to steel or other pipeline materials. H2S certainly is a corrosive agent to steels, etc. It’s all about what rots out their lines and equipment—nothing else matters.
Carbonyl sulfide sure makes people sick though.
Oh, you bet. That is true about sickness. But the GasHoles do not worry about people getting sick–they only worry about if their pipes and equipment rots out!!!!
No need for the companies to worry about people getting sick when they know they can pacify a gassed community by greasing their palms.
“A concentration of H2S measuring 6,200 parts per million” can slither through the neighbourhood for a good 8 hours (from frac sand corrosion) and a donation of $250,000 should just about cover it.
“’Yeah, they’ve recognized it [the health concerns], but because there is such a huge pool of money coming in from the natural gas resources here, it is just an ad-lib or something just to pacify the people and keep them quiet’”
“’We have the Oil and Gas Commission that is supposed to regulate this stuff, and they are not doing anything. I don’t think the government is going to [do] anything either’”
http://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/article/20120609/FORTSTJOHN0101/306099995/-1/fortstjohn/health-risks-are-real-say-residents
http://energeticcity.ca/article/news/2012/09/12/250000-community-safety-projects-following-encana-gas-leak
If people will read the book Saboteurs by Andrew Nikiforuk and watch the documentary about Wiebo Ludwig, they will better understand the health impacts, how long industry has known about these impacts and the lengths and depths they will go to deceive us.
Is an excellent and informative read by an outstanding author.
It’s amazing that in this day and age, you can gas and poison people and go for a beer after (if you have a company logo on your jacket), but if you try to defend and protect your family from being gassed or poisoned, no beer for you.
Thanks for all the information Sharon, have a great day.
The organic sulfur compounds are also corrosive to steel, but apparently not to the degree that H2S is. CS2 and COS are both more explosive than H2S.
Carbonyl sulfide can be thought of as an intermediary between carbon disulfide and carbon dioxide. This is a naturally-occuring compound, but its presence in hydrocarbon streams is process driven. Because it is organic, industry is largely exempt from having to report on this one. So, we all just turn and sigh when H2S is measured at 1200ppm in a tank holding crude with 5ppm H2S. Or, am I missing something?
Thank you for this information. I know that carbon disulfide turned up so often in the beginning that the TCEQ conveniently stopped testing for it. But the Carbonyl sulfide shows up all the time.
Remember when Ed Ireland asked, “What does carbon disulfide have to to with natural gas. “
I don’t recall that the organic sulfur compounds are covered under NACE like H2S is–for corrosion. I may be a few years out of date however, comments please.
I don’t know from ACE.
The best information I have been able to find in regards to pipeline specifications was on a Worley Parsons web page.
H2S is regulated and monitored separately from the rest, it would seem. Carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide and the other organic sulfiur species are lumped together as “RSH”. It is interesting and confusing to me that methyl mercaptan is also one of the RSH compounds. This is the “odorant” sometimes added to retail natural gas streams. continued…….
So, it is my understanding that CS2, COS, and some other far less toxic compounds all fall into this RSH category, from a regulatory perspective, at least as far as typical pipeline concentration limits. I am not AT ALL sure about any of this.
Anecdotal reports seem to support the view that, in terms of the RSH chemicals, it is carbonyl sulfide that is most likely to occur at the highest concentrations. Carbonyl sulfide is also refrred to as Carbon Oxysulfide.
Again, it can be thought of as an intermediary between CS2 and CO2. When CS2 reacts with oxygen to form COS, this is a non-reversible reaction. continued…
-My point is this-
When carbonyl sulfide reacts with H2O to form H2S, (i.e. inside a pipeline, rail car, or some other tankage) this is a Reversible reaction. Left alone, H2S and COS will reach equillibrium in that headspace. SO, if there is substantial H2S present in the headspace of a given storage vessel, then it stands to reason that there also may be substantial COS. Because of this, simply limiting the H2S content of the pipeline liquid, while ignoring the organic species, might not fix the problem at hand. It is my opinion that we don’t have the information we need to protect those workers and others put at risk from these sour cargoes. I hope some of this helps.