https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-03/oxygen-shortage-forces-texas-oil-refinery-to-curtail-operations
Take this from someone in the field, there's also a shortage of metal gas cylinders since so many of them are being made or repurposed for medical uses. The price of raw oxygen has shot up.
However, the price of other refinery chemicals has plummeted. Carbon dioxide and methane are at some of the lowest prices I've ever seen. It's made for a weird moment where refineries are having lopsided profit margins throughout their departments and that's causing frequent supply chain problems. That seems to be generating a more fluid workforce than before, people hopping job to job, but that could be wider stuff going on. There's also simply fewer people working in refineries.
Whatever the case, I think it's causing industrial accidents to be more frequent, or maybe I'm getting paranoid and the accidents just seem more visible now. There was a shelter-in-place order in the Houston area last week due to a sulfur leak. There was an acetic acid leak last month at the Lyondell plant that killed two people. The Marathon refinery had a hydrofluoric acid leak back in May. Weird moment where productive output looks good on paper, but it's only in certain areas and the supply chain is frequently strained.
Carbon dioxide and methane are at some of the lowest prices I’ve ever seen
it's been a bear market since 1750
Leaks are a routine part of life if you live near chemical facilities ("the smell of money"). They have various strategies to avoid it, but it takes investment and since everyone slashed spending during Covid (and a lot of companies before that too), it's decaying.
An increase in accidents wouldn't surprise me given the amount of job-hopping - lots of new people equals lots of mistakes. Plus I'm sure a lot of them are chasing overtime like mad which makes things worse.
Critical support for antivaxers shutting down parts of the oil industry by dying on ventilators.
I've been thinking we should cynically oppose 5G in the US because if it keeps us technologically behind China, that's a win for the world.
Rumor has it lack of LOX has also stalled Musk's mass production of Flying Grain Silos, so lots of fun all round.
Indeed: SpaceX faces possible liquid oxygen shortage for rocket fuel amid pandemic :sicko-flipped:
I do too, mind you, and what the workers at SpaceX managed to do (despite that shithead Musk) is pretty impressive. But also, it's hard not to have some joy at anything that might piss off Musk.
We are basically going to fuck the economy by trying to make it the priority by staying open.
But I thought reducing Covid restrictions would prevent businesses from closing? I can't believe mask mandates did this
sulfur recovery
okay correct me if i'm wrong but
is this article running cover for a story that actually reads "oil refinery turns off EPA mandated pollution control systems, continues operating, blames resultant pollution on Covid"
The dominos keep falling. Collapse you pig empire. :sicko-spin:
Fuck I hate how that rotates around his eye. I somehow didn't notice before, but now all I can see is that cursed fucking eye staring into my soul.
Good thing the people in charge have the biggest issue in mind *checks notes* abortion
Gotta keep birth rates above replacement level and replacement level has increased.
The only thing keeping profit rates up for the past century was insanely high birthrates in places where the most exploited labor is. As the capitalist empire receeds back towards the core we're going to see more of this to try and keep people fighting with their children and grandchildren for jobs.
It's veiled under religion, but they know that more babies means more cheap labor. Without a support system for raising children, or any sort of alternative, women and children will be forced to accept low wages just to survive and this is highly profitable.
Some of the most highly exploited workers in the first world are single mothers. Every shit job I've worked had been absolutely full of single mothers making almost nothing just to get by.
isn't Citgo the majority-Venezuelan-owned one that the USA fucked them out of revenues for
