Bloggers Go to Billings

I should have Part 2 of the series of answering readers’ questions posted by tomorrow, but until then I was just sent the following link, which was of great personal interest to me:

A Green Refinery?

The gist is that last year the American Petroleum Institute flew a group of bloggers up to the ConocoPhillips refinery in Billings, Montana where I used to work to give them a perspective of life in a refinery. A video diary of the trip was recently posted to the link above. An excerpt from the link:

The refinery has twice been awarded EnergyStar designation by the EPA for its comparatively efficient production processes. It also established a Citizen’s Advisory Council to maintain an open dialogue between the community and ConocoPhillips. This council has been instrumental in tracking the plant’s social, economic, and environmental performance.

It was kind of funny to see my old managers there lecturing on how a refinery works, and what makes the Billings Refinery unique. (Yes, Tim Seidel looks unusually young to be a manager in a refinery, but he is very talented).

Here were some of the essays that bloggers wrote following the trip:

How Much at What Pressure and Temperature?

Semi-coherent and random thoughts about the Billings trip

Refined Refinery? ConocoPhillips in Billings, MT

I do have one comment on some of the write-ups I have seen. There seems to be some misinformation that the refinery was either built for, or relies upon the Alberta tar sands for feedstock. First, that certainly wasn’t why the refinery was built, as it was there long before tar sands became an industry. Second, unless things have changed in the 2.5 years since I left, the refinery actually utilizes little or no syncrude from tar sands. It is a refinery designed for heavy, sour oil, and as such is not ideal for the syncrude coming out of the tar sands.

Anyway, just thought this might be of some interest. More answers to readers’ questions tomorrow.