Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Tuesday 15th April 2014…Day 10!!

It was sad to say another morning of me waking up at 5.30am I do sleep well and I still think it has part to do with the time change but also could not stop my brain from ticking over…anyway I got up made a cup of tea worked on the computer and was on the road by 7am..a bit dreary and grey skies

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I was soon at the Astoria bridge and the mouth of the Columbia river and then into Washington State!!

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It rained quite hard for about 40 minutes!!!

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It is quite a while since I have seen rain and had my fill for the day.

I have received some e mails saying that the animals at the water hole on yesterday’s blog were not in fact Elk……of course they are not… boy some people are gullible but today I did manage to get a good shot of one and I do know that this is an Elk!!!!

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I did a small detour to go to another REI store..this is my third store in my third State..I have not chronicled it but I have had some trouble selecting the right sock for the Camino..the first pair too thin, the second too thick but this time I hope to have it right with a medium blend wool hiking sock!!!!

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You can see that underneath the sock I wear a woman’s ankle high stocking….No comments!!!!!.   just to jump ahead on the hike this afternoon the socks were great!!!

As I was leaving REI I asked one of the sales representative if he knew of a good hike I could take on my way north and he suggested one called the Staircase outside of Hoodsport.

I found the place easily and it is in the

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parked the car and found the trail head

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It was a really nice hike and I enjoyed the solitude and was able to sort a few things out in my mind.

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I did enjoy this hike..on the road back I stopped here

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If you look closely at the big rock you will see a yellow rope attached…could not miss this chance for adventure..

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I managed to get to the base of the rock and pulled on the rope and it seemed secure and then I stood back and thought do I really want to do this…The Linda part of me said don’t be a silly boy….the Percy(my Dad) part of me said go for it I am going up..so I did

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Made it to the top

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and coming down was easy.

It was another hours drive to port Angeles where I had another airbnb room booked and it was nicely situated on the bluff over looking the straight

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The owner Diana, is a very interesting and well travelled lady and we had a nice chat with tea before I went into town and found this great restaurant

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and a wonderful home cooked turkey dinner.

So now almost 10pm and the map of my journey north today

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This is my last day in  USA for  a month and at 8.20am in the morning I take the ferry over to Vancouver island and my home on the Bank!!!

If you want a fun read go back in the archives here to April 23rd 2011 and read about the last time I took this same ferry.

I found this article interesting!!

Exclusive: Pemex refineries to boost output in 2014, maintenance peaks in October, November

 

 

File photo of a storage tank and a processing plant at the Miguel Hidalgo refinery in Tula

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A storage tank and a processing plant are seen at the Miguel Hidalgo refinery in Tula in this November …

By Adriana Barrera

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Refineries owned by Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex will boost crude processing volumes to their highest rate in five years in 2014, with maintenance work peaking in late autumn, according to a company plan seen by Reuters.

The company's six domestic plants are expected to process an average of 1.248 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, or 79.2 percent of their combined capacity, according to a Reuters analysis based on a scheduled turnaround plan for this year.

Pemex's total refining capacity stands at 1.576 million bpd.

The slightly higher runs may help Pemex reduce swelling imports of fuels like gasoline, demand for which is rising as the nation's aging refinery fleet struggles to cope with its mostly heavy slate of Mexican crude, which is more difficult to process into high-value fuels.

Refinery crude processing volumes in Mexico have slipped from a peak of more than 1.303 million bpd in 2004, forcing Pemex to boost gasoline imports that it often sells at a loss due to subsidized domestic prices.

View gallery

File photo of excess natural gas being flared, or burnt …

Excess natural gas is being flared, or burnt off, at a flare stack at the refinery in Tula in this N …

But it is now stepping up efforts to boost capacity.

Refinery runs will peak this year in August at 1.315 million bpd or 83 percent of capacity, the data show.

But two major turnarounds will reduce output in October and November, the same time that U.S. Gulf Coast refiners often shut down for work. Throughput is forecast to hit a low of 1.150 million bpd in November, or nearly 73 percent of capacity.

Pemex officials declined requests for comment, and while the company has repeatedly declined to release the scheduled maintenance plans, it did confirm the authenticity of the documents obtained by Reuters.

Many companies will adjust maintenance plans during 2014 depending on contractor availability, profit margins and operational constraints.

View gallery

File photo of natural gas flare stack and distillation …

Natural gas flare stack and distillation towers are seen at the Miguel Hidalgo refinery in Tula in t …

TURNAROUNDS COMING

Pemex's largest refinery is the Antonio Dovali Jaime facility in Salina Cruz, located in the southern state of Oaxaca. It is scheduled to shut one of its two crude distillation units (CDUs) and a host of downstream units including a gasoline-making fluidic catalytical cracker (FCC) for most of November, according to the Pemex plan.

The plant has two CDUs with capacity of approximately 160,000 bpd, according to IIR Energy capacity data available on Thomson Reuters Eikon.

The second biggest is the Miguel Hidalgo facility in Tula, located in the central state of Hidalgo. It is slated to shut one of its FCC units for all of June. The unit's capacity is 40,000 bpd, the Eikon data show.

Major maintenance is also planned at the Antonio M. Amor facility in Salamanca, in the central state of Guanajuato, which will shut down its as crude unit for November 7-30, as well as a reformer and other units. That unit's capacity is 95,000 bpd, according to Eikon data.

Other work was already conducted on the 275,000 bpd Hector R. Lara Sosa refinery in Cadereyta, in northern Nuevo Leon state, earlier this year. The nation's smallest plant, Francisco I. Madero in Ciudad Madero, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, is due to shut a crude unit and a coker for June.

INVESTING IN ITSELF

While a landmark energy reform approved late last year ended Pemex's 75-year monopoly on oil sector activities ranging from crude production to refining to gasoline sales, private investors are still expected to shun Mexico's refining sector due in large part to government-set fuel prices.

Pemex finished reconfiguring its Minatitlan refinery in 2012, increasing its refining capacity to 246,000 bpd from 135,000 bpd.

The company says it still aims to construct a new refinery in Tula, the first in decades, but it has suffered various delays and was excluded from Pemex's most recent five-year business plan. If built, the new refinery will cost more than $10 billion and aims to add 250,000 bpd of capacity to the national refining system.

Pemex has said it will first upgrade the existing Tula refinery by adding a deep conversion coking plant, which analysts expect to be operational after 2020.

The company also plans similar upgrades at its Salina Cruz and Cadereyta refineries further down the road.

2 comments:

Croft said...

Les, you are in a town known for it's crab and you order turkey!

mexicokid said...

what can I say I am a turkey man....

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