08.02.08
Posted in Carrizo (CRZO), Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobil (XOM), Proven Reserves -- accounting at 11:19 am by Administrator
Honestly, I don’t know what this thing is. It is part of the Kelsey Compressor Station. In July 2008, I saw that Exxon had sent some mechanics to work on it, so it must be something important. You don’t see a lot of things getting fixed around here. The mechanics’ presence in itself is newsworthy. The problem has been remedied and the contraption is up and running once again. I saw no screws plugging leaks. ExxonMobil has more than a roll of teflon tape and a few screws in their repair kit. That is reassuring. Here are some photos after the repairs were complete.
The neighbors, they have their own family owned oil company called Mestena Operating Ltd., are calling. They ask, “Hey, why aren’t you picking on Chevron. We just drilled 14 wells on our side of the fence and drained your gas. Aren’t you mad that Chevron, Carrizo, and Edge didn’t do any offsets?”. People are so impatient!! I’ve only had this blog for a week. I promise to get over to the Chevron side of the lease. ExxonMobil has these great tank slag roads and we just had a hurricane. Chevron has caliche roads and they are muddy. Plus, it’s not like Chevron, Carrizo and Edge aren’t going to have to pay us for all that gas they didn’t drill. There are only so many hours in a day, so I will get to the Chevron side, don’t worry. And, it’s ugly up there.
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08.01.08
Posted in Carrizo (CRZO), Chevron (CVX), EDGE, ExxonMobil (XOM) at 3:50 pm by Administrator
What should have been a simple day, got complicated. I had to take some friends by Central Tank Battery and the first thing I noticed…. a leaking tank. Not that a leaking tank is really anything out of the normal in an ExxonMobil facility. I happened to have my geiger counter on my person, and took a quick reading of 316. The background NORM is 30. So, whatever is leaking from this tank is very radioactive. All the tank said was “out of service” “NO hazardous chemicals”. Obviously, radioactive material is not considered hazardous to ExxonMobil. No telling what Exxon has in the tank. As you can tell by these photos, the tank has leaked before, it leaks until the level of the tank drops below the hole. Then a new hole forms and it leaks again. ExxonMobil is such a prudent operator. If they weren’t they wouldn’t have a lease. Checklist for a prudent operator — this is a page out of their manual:
1. Fill up tank with radioactive material
2. Take it out of service.
3. Watch tank leak out until it is completely empty
4. Repeat.
Oh, while I was out watching ExxonMobil dump “non-hazardous chemicals” all over the place, I saw some more illegal immigrants pass by. I tried to shout out “Hey be careful, this is a no smoking area. No fumar.” but they ignored me. These folks don’t realize that most of ExxonMobil’s stuff is leaking gas — adding a new deadly element to the smoking habit.
After Central Tank, we went to the Kelsey Compressor Station. Here I found a HUGE tank leaking. It’s so big, I wonder how many years it will take to actually empty. I have no clue what is in it. I’m sure it’s just some more non-hazardous radioactive waste. My geiger counter was out of batteries. Darn.
When I was leaving the compressor station I saw another leaking tank marked Benzene and it had two separate screw-repairs from previous leaks.
Then, my friends wanted to go see how Chevron’s big MERCURY contamination clean up was going. Chevron reported a big problem to the Texas Railroad Commission about MERCURY in October of 2007. We were able to verify from our on-site visit that the clean-up is moving right along.
Like I said, it has been a busy day.
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