America’s Crisis of Character :: Is something more required to ‘Make America Great Again’?

Submitted by: SL @SLandinSoCal

The MSM continues to disgust me. The MAJORITY of people affected by the disaster in Texas have NOT complained. They have been thankful and even smiling. Yet as I watch MSM, I see them repeatedly playing clips of 3 ungrateful women complaining about the conditions at the George R Brown shelter. ‘It stinks in here’, ‘I didn’t have a cot for me or my kids last night’, ‘the mayor said we didn’t have to evacuate, but he LIED’.

These people disgust me, but MSM disgusts me even more. As they have covered this catastrophic event, most likely the biggest disaster our country has experienced, they have made every attempt to politicize it and criticize the response. A challenging thing, since the response has been amazing.

The impact of this disaster is FAR greater than that of Katrina but there are very DRAMATIC contrasts both in handling the response/rescue and in the reaction of the victims.

I would love to see someone put together a video that highlights some of these differences because I think it reveals both a core strength and a core weakness that exists in our country.

The issue is that of PERSONAL CHARACTER! I believe that the majority of Americans have good character, if not great character, but there is a subset of Americans who lack good character and some who have a very poor character. My concern is that America is facing a CRISIS OF CHARACTER!

When you see neighbor helping neighbor, gratefulness in times of crisis, respect for others & others property which includes cleanliness so you don’t leave a mess for someone else, these are the results of GOOD CHARACTER.

When you see people taking advantage of others by looting, or lack of respect for others in they way they talk or by vandalizing property or leaving a mess for others to clean up, when you see ungratefulness, people expecting others to do something for them but not being willing to help others, you are seeing the results of POOR CHARACTER.

The character of the people of our country is being undermined. Good character development is no longer being taught, exampled or encourage for many. We see dramatic displays of deplorable character in the Alt Left groups of BLM and ANTIFA. They have no respect for for their fellow man. They have many negative character traits. To make matters worse, many including MSM and prominent politicians are condoning and encouraging that character. There is no positive future for a society built on poor character.

If we are truly going to “Make America Great Again”, it will take more than jobs, tax cuts and a thriving economy. It will require programs and commitment to teach and build GOOD CHARACTER in the people of our country. Each of us should strive to build the elements of good character within ourselves everyday and also to encourage others to strive for those characters within themselves.

Here’s a link to a list of good character traits to strive for: http://www.character-training.com/blog/list-of-character-traits/ …

USA: Golden Pass Files with DOE to Export LNG

Golden Pass Products, a partnership of Qatar Petroleum International and ExxonMobil affiliates, has submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Golden Pass LNG receiving terminal at Sabine Pass, Texas.

The proposed project involves construction of natural gas liquefaction and export capabilities at the existing Golden Pass LNG facility. A final investment decision will be made following government and regulatory approvals.

If developed, the project would represent approximately $10 billion of investment on the Gulf Coast, generating billions of dollars of economic growth at local, state and national levels and millions of dollars in taxes to local, state and federal governments. The project would generate approximately 9,000 construction jobs over five years with peak construction employment reaching about 3,000 jobs.

The proposed project would have the capacity to send out approximately 15.6 million tons of LNG per year. New infrastructure required to export will be located on the existing property, which currently contains two berths for LNG tankers, five storage tanks and access to the Golden Pass pipeline. The expanded facility would then have the capability and flexibility to both import and export natural gas.

The proposed expansion of Golden Pass is an opportunity to capitalize on America’s abundant natural gas resources. The Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2012 shows that the United States has substantial gas supplies that can support gas exports, including LNG exports, over the longer term.

The application filed with the DOE is to export natural gas to nations that have existing free trade agreements (FTA) with the United States. A similar application is planned for non-FTA countries.

Source

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Shell Pipeline Houma-To-Houston Reversal Project Progressing

07/11/2012

Shell Pipeline today announced that its Ho-Ho pipeline reversal project (“Ho-Ho Reversal”) is progressing as per plan, based on shipper requests and new crude production and infrastructure coming online.

After the completion of this project, shippers will have access to markets and connectivity in Nederland and Port Arthur, Texas.

Through a Declaratory Order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently approved the contract rates and capacity allocation for the Ho-Ho Reversal project.  Shell Pipeline welcomes this decision that further supports this project.

The initial phase of Shell Pipeline’s Ho-Ho Reversal project will move crude oil from connecting pipelines and terminals in East Houston to Nederland and Port Arthur, thereby supplying the refining complex across the region with crude from Eagle Ford and Permian, as well as crude supplies from the Cushing, Oklahoma area.  Phase I of the Ho-Ho Reversal project is designed to complement the new pipeline infrastructure that is currently being built to the Houston area.

About Shell Pipeline Company LP:  For more than 80 years, Shell Pipeline Company LP has helped meet America’s energy needs. We transport more than 2 billion barrels of crude oil and refined products annually through thousands of miles of pipelines located in seven states.

Source

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• Enterprise Products, Enbridge Announce Completion Of Seaway Pipeline Reversal (mb50.wordpress.com)

Enterprise Products, Enbridge Announce Completion Of Seaway Pipeline Reversal

(RTTNews.com) – Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD) and Enbridge Inc. (ENB, ENB.TO) said Thursday that modifications to the Seaway crude oil pipeline allowing it to transport crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma to the U.S. Gulf Coast have been completed.

According to the companies, the pipeline is in the process of being commissioned, and the first flows of crude oil into the line are expected to begin this weekend.

The reversal of the 500-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline, which had been in northbound service since 1995, provides North American producers with the infrastructure needed to access more than 4 million barrels per day of Gulf Coast refinery demand.

The reversal will initially provide 150,000 BPD of capacity, which is expected to increase to more than 400,000 BPD in the first quarter 2013 with additional modifications and increased pumping capabilities.

Seaway Crude Pipeline Company LLC is a 50/50 joint venture owned by affiliates of Enterprise Products Partners and Enbridge Inc. In addition to the pipeline that transports crude oil from Cushing to the Gulf Coast, the Seaway system is comprised of a terminal and distribution network originating in Texas City.

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

http://www.rttnews.com

Source

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Seaway – Echo terminal link planned

News wires  02 March 2012 02:57 GMT

The proposed pipeline would be about 40 miles long, Enbridge executive Brad Shamla told Reuters.

“We are shipping crude out over a dock to other destinations on the Gulf Coast,” he said.

Following this, another pipeline would be laid, this one from the Echo terminal, along the Houston Ship Channel, to the Port Arthur area of Texas on the border of Louisiana.

Shamla said that pipeline will be about 80 miles in length and be done in 2014.

The plan was announced as the companies continued their purging of the 500-mile Seaway pipeline, which they said was ahead of schedule.

The pipeline will begin by carrying 150,000 barrels per day by 1 June from the oil hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, to Gulf Coast refineries, said Shamla.

The pipeline is the first of several projects to siphon the glut of crude oil sitting in Cushing to the refineries along the Gulf Coast.

The reversed Seaway pipeline capacity is expected to grow 400,000 bpd in 2014 but could increase more if the current open season seeking more firm shipping commitments is successful, Reuters reported.

Source

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Gulf Coast working to fill a fuel void in Northeast

Sunoco‘s Philadelphia refinery is on the banks of the Schuylkill River. The company plans to pull out of the refining business altogether, which could help put the Northeast region in a precarious position. Photo: MIKE MERGEN / HC

by Simone Sebastian

Northeastern states are slated to lose half of their regional capacity for fuel production by midyear as financial woes push refineries there to idle, a trend likely to increase the region’s dependency on Gulf Coast supply.

A Houston-to-New York pipeline is making major expansions to accommodate growing demand to transport gasoline and other fuels up north from the Gulf Coast to fill the potential supply void.

The Gulf already supplies about half of the Northeast’s demand for petroleum products, said Mindi Farber-Deanda, head of the liquid fuels market team for the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But the shutdown of production at two major Pennsylvania refineries last year and potential closure of a third could put the region in a precarious position and stress supplies of gasoline, jet fuel and heating oil, the agency concluded in a new report.

“It’s marginal, but it matters,” Farber-Deanda said of the drop in the Northeast’s local fuel production. “Before, you could get a certain percentage of supply from local refineries. Now you get it from Europe and the Gulf.”

The report noted that Northeastern states could experience “spot shortages with price hikes” for gasoline and other fuels as refineries discontinue operations.

Sunoco announced last month that it will idle operation of its 335,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Marcus Hook, Pa., part of the company’s plan to pull out of the refining business altogether. If Sunoco doesn’t find a buyer for its 178,000-barrel-per-day Philadelphia refinery by July, it will go off line, too, the company has said.

ConocoPhillips announced a similar move in September, taking its 185,000-barrel-per-day Trainer, Pa., refinery off line to prepare it for sale.

Pressure points

A combination of the sagging economy and improved fuel efficiency in vehicles and equipment has caused demand for some fuels to plateau. Meanwhile, competition from larger and more efficient refineries on the Gulf Coast and imports from Europe put pressure on local fuel producers, said Bill Day, a spokesman for San Antonio-based refiner Valero.

“They found it very difficult to compete,” he said. “If there was demand for product there, those refineries wouldn’t close down.”

Valero pulled out of the Northeast in 2010, when it sold its Delaware City, Del., and Paulsboro, N.J., refineries.

The struggling European economy has left refiners on the continent with plenty of gasoline to ship overseas.

Cleaner heating oil

A bigger concern for the Northeast is heating oil.

Demand for ultra-low-sulfur heating oil is expected to rise next fall, when regulations taking effect in New York will require use of the cleaner fuel in boilers that warm buildings. A limited number of refineries are equipped to produce it.

“Heating oil concerns are probably the greatest,” said Terry Higgins, executive director of refining for consulting company Hart Energy. “A cold snap, with a strong surge on heating oil needs, could be a strain on the system.”

Room to grow

The Gulf Coast is replete with refineries that are expanding or have room to increase production, he said. Motiva Enterprises, a joint venture of Shell and Saudi Aramco, is nearing the end of a massive expansion of its Port Arthur refinery to increase production of ultra-low sulfur fuel and other petroleum products.

In 2010, Gulf Coast area refiners produced a net 3.4 million barrels per day of ultralow-sulfur distillate fuel oil, a category that includes the clean heating oil, according to Energy Information Administration data. That’s up from just 23,000 barrels per day in 2005.

Colonial Pipeline, a major thoroughfare for shipping fuels from Gulf Coast refineries to East Coast markets, has seen growing demand from refiners to ship larger amounts of its products north, spokesman Steve Baker said.

The 5,500-mile pipeline transports heating oil, as well as gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products.

Last year, Colonial added 120,000 barrels per day of carrying capacity to its system. By mid-2012, it will have expanded the flow of distillates – including heating oil, jet fuel and diesel – by another 55,000 barrels per day. In December, the company announced it would expand its gasoline transport capacity by another 100,000 barrels per day.

In total, the expansions will increase the system’s capacity by about 8 percent, Baker said.

“We have seen a rising demand throughout the year” for fuel transport between the Gulf Coast and the Northeast, Baker said. “These are big capital investments. It’s a significant increase.”

Source

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Ironically Texas May Be Forced To Export Unrefined Crude By 2012

The US oil industry is in a bit of a quandary. The Houston & Louisiana refining area is the largest in the world. It has just had tens of billions of dollars thrown at it, to prepare it to run heavy sour sources. These heavy sour grades are typically cheaper, and contain lots of secondary products during the refining process.

In simple terms, we have spent the last twenty years preparing to make more out of lower quality oil. It was a great idea, when the handwriting on the wall said these would be the only real sources of future growth in hydrocarbon volumes.

This is now a problem for some companies, as their own refinery’s need the heavy sour crude’s to fuel these their product runs. What are they to do with a flood of light to super light sweet crude’s?

If they ran this stuff, they would  have to turn off a significant number of units at their refinery’s that are designed to capture and crack the heavy sludge. This leave the US refining patch in a bit of a jam.

The new Eagle Ford shale oil is coming online in large volumes. Rumors are that Eagle Ford production will crack 500,000 barrels by the end of 2012, if they can get around localized shipping constraints.

Right now it is the gathering of the stuff in quantities that are easy to ship/export that is the issue.The crude is so light in some places, they need specialized trucks to collect it and bring it to a gathering location. There isn’t the capacity to pick up the crude and bring it to market available right now.

We are talking about 100,000 barrels of oil production behind pipe right now, and growing daily as people rush to install new smaller capacity pipelines around Texas to help haul it away.

The number of companies that believe they can growth their domestic production by 100,000 barrels of oil in the next couple of years is growing.

The irony is that the new supply is super light & sweet. A mix never expected in the US again.

Platts had an article on this exact topic in June of 2011.

The US could resume exporting some of its domestic crude oil production in 2012 when the output from Eagle Ford Shale in Texas ramps up.

Eagle Ford shale crude’s gravity ranges from 42 API to 60 API with very low sulfur content, which in the US Gulf Coast refining terminology is considered a super light crude.

But that’s the problem for US refiners: they aren’t built to process that type of crude. So the highest value for it may be outside the country.

The US exports may be to the US East Coast first. The refinery’s based on the east coast tend to have a higher sweeter demand over their Southern units.

In fact, the blow out in Brent prices has severely affected their profits due to sourcing costs increasing significantly this spring with the Libya revolution. There have been at least 3 refinery’s put up for sale or being put into mothballs until a cheaper source of crude is available.

“U.S. east coast refining has been under severe market pressure for several years. Product imports, weakness in motor fuel demand and costly regulatory requirements are key factors in creating this very difficult environment,” ConocoPhillips said when it put Trainer on the auction block.

If the three refineries on the block shut down, what does this mean for oil markets?

In the case of the US, if Texas starts to export light sweet crude by large barges to the east coast. You could see a Renaissance in US exports of refined products as these units produce above domestic demand needs.

The irony is that in the US we have removed the demand for the lighter sweet crude’s, so much so we will soon be exporting it from our primary refining center due to excess capacity in supplies. NOT DEMAND.

The energy crisis of 2005 is not the supply crisis everyone was looking for. I wonder how long it will take society to catch up to the new reality. The US is going to become an energy exporter, even if its Texas shipping crude to those Yankees up north.

Before you fall out of your chair laughing, look at this chart, conceptualize it, and then leave me a comment in the section below. I look forward to your thoughts on this chart.

It’s a chart of barrels of oil produced per year from a specific zone in Texas. It will double every year for the next few. Then think about other new zones like it coming online in the next few years. Its a small amount today, but a not so small amount by tomorrow.

• Platts Eagle Ford
• The Globe & Mail Bleak times for US Refinery’s
• Texas Railroad Eagle Ford Production Chart

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Enterprise, Enbridge look to Port Arthur access

NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Enterprise Partners and

Enbridge plan as part of the reversal of the Seaway pipeline

project to build an 85-mile (135-km) pipeline from its ECHO

terminal in Houston to refineries in Port Arthur, a spokesman

for Enterprise said on Wednesday.

The pipeline’s open season to garner shipper commitment

will happen early in 2012.

‘It will allow heavy Canadian crude access to Port Arthur

refineries,’ said Rick Rainey, spokesman for Enterprise.

(Reporting by Janet McGurty)

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