quote:

Blasts hit Iran’s natural gas pipeline in act of ‘sabotage:’ official


Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran early on Wednesday, with an official blaming the blasts on a “sabotage and terrorist action” in the country as tensions remain high in the Middle East amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Details were scarce, though the blasts hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 790-mile pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.

Saeed Aghli, the manager of Iran’s gas network control center, told Iranian state television that a “sabotage and terrorist” action caused explosions along several areas of the line.

There are no known insurgent groups operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran’s Lur ethnic group.

Aghli did not name any suspects in the blasts.

Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji, also speaking to state TV, compared the attack to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assault on gas pipelines in 2011 — including around the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tehran marked the 45th anniversary of the revolution on Sunday.

“The goal that the enemies were pursuing were to cut the gas in the major provinces of the country and it did not happen,” Owji said.

“Except for the number of villages that were near the gas transmission lines, no province suffered a cut.”

Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran early Wednesday, with an official blaming the blasts on a "sabotage and terrorist action" in the country as tensions remain high in the Middle East amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In the past, Arab separatists in southwestern Iran have claimed attacks against oil pipelines. However, attacks elsewhere in Iran against such infrastructure are rare.

Since the revolution, Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest from Kurds in the country’s northwest, the Baluch in the east and Arabs in the southwest.

However, tensions have risen in recent years as Iran faces an economy hobbled by international sanctions over its nuclear program.

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Originally posted by Russ59:
As for your increases, looks like most of you are east coast based. I'm wondering if there isn't a supply issue or refining issue.

Queue Tatortodd for insight.

March NYMEX crude oil future (i.e. Cushing, OK) is down $.015 per gallon in a week. That's wholesale without transportation, storage, taxes, etc.

The core of the price tracking and inventory tracking is by PADD region so here is the PADD map:


GasBuddy's weekly price change heat map was a little surprising. PADD 1A is flat which is odd as they usually move with PADD 1B. PADD 1A is also really susceptible to bidding wars with Europe due to the amount of barrels transported from Gulf Coast via barge/tanker. PADD 1B, the northern end of PADD 1C, and part of PADD 2 have the largest weekly price increases.


That caused me to look at PADD 1 and 2 refinery outages. BP's Whiting is the largest refinery in the Midwest and is located in the Indiana portion of Chicago. It suffered a major power outage 2 weeks ago and they're still not back up. Crude oil is stacking up in Midwest tankage because Whiting isn't refining 435,000 barrels per day into refined product (e.g. gasoline). Meanwhile gasoline prices are going up as there isn't enough spare refining capacity in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, PA, and WV to make up for Whiting. Refineries in TX, LA, AL, and MS are going to have to make up for it, and the gasoline needs to make the long journey via Colonial Pipeline past the thirsty people in PADD 1C (with the exception of WV, this region has zero refineries).

I've screencaptured this EIA map to provide an idea on refinery locations and refined product pipelines:

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by lkdr1989:
Conflict in the middle east is probably not helping:

quote:

Blasts hit Iran’s natural gas pipeline in act of ‘sabotage:’ official