Sam Fletcher
OGJ Online
HOUSTON, Feb. 28�Most Washington refiners reported no disruptions or apparent damage following an earthquake that swayed Seattle skyscrapers and collapsed the walls of some smaller buildings in that city late Wednesday.
The afternoon earthquake also shook Vancouver, BC, 100 miles to the north. The US Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., reported the disturbance measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale.
Only US Oil & Refining Co. and Sound Refining Inc., both in Tacoma, could not be contacted late Wednesday. Telephone calls to both companies produced only recordings that said telephone connections in that area had been disrupted by the earthquake. Attempts to contact a US Oil & Refining office in California also were unsuccessful.
Tosco Refining Co. workers were still checking that company�s refinery in Ferndale, Wash., near the Canadian border late Wednesday but reported no apparent damage. One worker�a veteran of West Coast earthquakes�said it was not too severe at that location. �It was like a big truck driving by,� she told OGJ Online by telephone.
A BP official also reported no damage to that company�s refinery in Ferndale or to the
northern 37-mile section of the16-in. line owned by Olympic Pipe Line Co., which earlier this month resumed transportation of refined products from Ferndale in Whatcom County to Allen Station in Skagit County.
BP Pipelines North America is the new operator of that pipeline system, which ruptured June 10, 1999, spilling 229,000 gal of gasoline into a creek in Bellingham, Wash., 90 miles north of Seattle. The spill ignited into a fireball that killed two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old man.
A BP official told OGJ Online that the pipeline system automatically shut down as designed when the earthquake occurred. Although power to the pipeline was subsequently lost as a result of the earthquake, she said, monitors showed that there was no loss of pressure in the pipeline, indicating that no leaks had occurred.
BP officials have no timetable for resuming operation of the pipeline, pending aftershocks and eventual restoration of electric power.
Tesoro Petroleum Corp. in San Antonio, Texas, reported no injuries, damages or interruptions of its Pacific Northwest operations Wednesday. Tesoro operates a refinery with rated crude capacity of 108,000 b/d in Anacortes, Wash., about 70 miles north of Seattle. It also has terminals at Port Angeles and Vancouver, Wash., and offices in Auburn and Edmonds, Wash.
Puget Sound Refining Co. in Anacortes also reported no problems.
Cascade Natural Gas Corp. officials in Seattle said they were assessing the impact to the company�s natural gas distribution system in the Bellingham, Mt. Vernon, Bremerton, Aberdeen, and Longview areas.
Pending completion of their inspection, company officials asked customers not to turn off gas service at their meters.
