GICC has received the following postings on Energy Sector Related Items for the archives:

A URL on refinery and pipeline incidents:

Http://nckodokan.com/charts/crude.html (May not be being kept up to date.)

Energy sector items can regularly be found at:

Grassroots Information Coordination Center website at http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Grassroots%20Information%2 0Coordination%20Center%20%28GICC%29

Occasional postings on energy sector issues can be found at TB2K Alternative website at http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=TB2K%20spinoff%20uncensored

Reports were posted at least until June 2000 at Glitch Central at http://www.ciaosystems.com

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Fair Use/Education Research Use

FORWARDED thread: Fair Use/Education Research Use

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002hI2 greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

This Senator Strom Thurmond Sub Committee Hearing was held in 10/98 ---snip--- Comment to Dr. Hamre by Sen. Thurmond: I understand that the commercial fuel industry is facing a Y2K challenge in their refinery operations. Some reports state that only 30% of their refineries will be renovated by January 1, 2000.

Question to Dr. Hamre by Sen. Thurmond: Has the Department looked at the potential impact on it's operations if 70% of the U.S refinery operations are shut down?

Question to Dr. Hamre by Sen. Thurmond: How long will the Department's supply of fuel last if deliveries are suspended?

http://www.c3i.osd.mil/org/cio/y2k/slides_1998/sld043.htm

-- Smoking Gun (conspiracy@theroy.com), March 02, 2000

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FORWARDED MATERIAL (This material was posted on the web in May of 1999. The actual report may predate that posting.)

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Oil Refineries Are at Risk, Says IEA Report

Link: http://www.iea.org/ieay2k/html/refine.htm

Refineries are by design highly complex relying heavily on computers for smooth operation. An extensive survey of a refinery in the UK identified 94 systems requiring investigation for Y2K compliance. Of the systems assessed it was found that three would fail and that two of these three failures would cause a shutdown.

Attempting to trace even a small number of potential Y2K problems at a refinery is undeniably a major undertaking.

Refining is but a part of the general problem facing oil companies trying to address Y2K issues. It is a technologically intensive industry and companies are likely to operate myriad date sensitive integrated systems.

Embedded processors are the main source of this sensitivity and are found in devices such as flow meters, transmitters and smart valves. They are found throughout the oil industry and in all sectors, including drilling platforms, production platforms, pipelines and process plants. In the case of process plants, the devices containing embedded chips are interconnected, making the problem even more complex and increasing the possibility of Y2K failure.

A pilot inventory and assessment of a catalytic cracker and co-generation plant in the US revealed 1,035 systems of which 21% were not Y2K compliant and 6% that would lead to serious plant shutdowns or reduced production capabilities. The catalytic cracker would fail, rendering the refinery incapable of making gasoline. Given the widespread use of catalytic crackers in modern refineries, questions must inevitably be raised about their reliability in other refineries. For the co-generation plant 19% of the hardware, 36% of the software and 24% of the custom code was found to be non-compliant.

In late 1997 one oil company's engineers testing valve control equipment in their refineries discovered thousands of terminals controlling the dispensation of oil to have microchips with Y2K problems. All of the chips required replacement, however it was discovered that the replacement chips would not fit on the existing motherboards. It was therefore necessary to order both new chips and motherboards. Worse still, the replacement motherboards were found not to fit the old valves so the valves themselves had to be replaced. This example demonstrates how a Y2K problem can escalate beyond the original fault to include systems that may actually be compliant. An item's Y2K compliancy is therefore no guarantee that its replacement will not be necessitated by problems arising in other equipment.

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A Controversial Perspective on Energy Sector Problems: March 02, 2000 thread concerning current oil and gas supplies and embedded systems problems involving refineries and pipelines.

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002hDk

-- GICC Sysop (y2kgicc@yahoo.com), July 18, 2000