Last month, I toured the ConocoPhillips refinery located on the Delaware River in Trainer, Pennsylvania, which is just outside Philadelphia. The Trainer refinery has a processing capacity of 185,000 barrels a day, and processes light, low-sulfur crude oil from West Africa, Canada and the North Sea. I have previously toured an LNG terminal and a facility that produces gas turbines, but I've never been to a refinery before, so this was all very new to me. (The ultimate coup, I think would be a tour of an offshore rig in the Caspian Sea or or perhaps the Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico.)

The refinery tour was organized by the DC chapter of Young Professionals in Energy (YPE), which, as you've probably gathered, is an organization of young professionals who work for the various energy trade associations (like yours truly), government agencies, corporations, and consulting firms that are headquartered in Washington. If you were to look at the membership list, the sheer amount of acronyms would make your head spin.

While the refinery was obviously the main attraction on this field trip, the 2.5 hour bus ride to Philly was eventful in and of itself. We were driving north on I-95, the main highway on the east coast, when our driver suddenly swerved into the left hand lane, which was under construction, and came to a stop in the grassy median that divides the highway. He then proceeded to yell "I gotta go!", jump out of the bus, and run to the porta-potty on the median. We were all rather puzzled, and exchanged several "WTF?" looks. Our driver returned a few minutes later, announced "Now I gotta figure out how the eff to get outta here!" and started to back the bus out of the construction lane (which was sealed off with, you know, jersey barriers and cones and what not). Amazingly, he managed to get the bus out of the construction lane and back onto the freeway without killing all 25 of us.

We arrived at the refinery about an hour late due to several unscheduled stops like the one described above. ConocoPhillips provided us with a nice, warm lunch, so we dug in while the company representatives performed the standard safety briefing (as to be expected, it was much more thorough than the one we received at Chernobyl). The safety briefing was followed by a thorough overview of the refinery's operations and the various structures we would be seeing on the tour as well as a Q&A with the refinery manager and other representatives from the various departments.

What we were really looking forward to, of course, was the tour of the facility. Bill, the Public Affairs director, led us on a tour of the refinery, while our bus driver miraculously managed to not run into anything and start a fire. I imagine if he had, we probably would not have been invited back. A few of the things we saw on the tour: gas flare (acts as a safety device), catalytic reformer, cracking unit, liquefied gas storage units, cooling towers, and the dock facilities where the tankers unload their crude. This post would probably make a lot more sense if there were photos, but for security reasons you obviously cannot go around posting photos of energy infrastructure.

Group photo

Overall, the tour was very enjoyable and I have a much greater appreciation for all the work required to refine crude into something my SUV can digest. Many thanks to Bill and the other ConocoPhillips employees for hosting the tour, as well as providing us all with souvenir mini mag lights to take home.

On a final note, our driver's bizarre behavior continued on the trip back home. He almost hit a few cars, including a SEMI TRUCK, exited the freeway and entered a lane for a truck scale (WTF?), and took a "shortcut" through Laurel that added 20 minutes to our journey time. Well, at least we left the refinery unscathed.

Gazprom's Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District of Russia

Today's edition of the NYTimes has a good overview of Gazprom, its relationship with the Kremlin, and the challenges the company faces in meeting growing demand for natural gas at both home and abroad. The accompanying photo gallery, "A Quest for Energy in Darkest Siberia", is also worth checking out.

With energy prices continuing to hit record highs, Gazprom is more influential than ever, both at home and abroad. Gazprom says that before 2014 it will surpass Exxon Mobil as the world’s largest publicly traded company — a goal that Mr. Medvedev himself endorsed before he became president.

[...]

Rich as it is, Gazprom faces big challenges in the Medvedev era.

Rising prices for steel, equipment and labor have caught the company at the outset of its largest capital program in two decades. Like other Russian companies, it invested little money maintaining or upgrading equipment in the 1990s. But the days of coasting on Soviet-era infrastructure are over, as output declines from fields first tapped in the 1970s.

To meet export commitments in Europe, as well as growing demand at home, Gazprom will have to spend at least $75 billion to bring its two largest fields in the Arctic into production within the next decade, according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

Yet exploring and extracting gas in a region where temperatures dip to 50 degrees below zero is technologically challenging, as well as expensive. Gazprom must build pipelines, gas processing plants, liquefied natural gas factories and a full panoply of supporting infrastructure like roads, railroads and ports. And to accomplish those feats, it moves thousands of tons of steel and heavy equipment to the middle of a vast, frozen swamp.

“The complexity and the size of it is what creates a huge challenge for Russia and for Gazprom,” said Vitaly V. Yermakov, director of research for the Russian and Caspian region at Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

I'd really like to visit Neft Daşları (Oil Rocks), located in the Caspian Sea about 45km offshore of Baku, but apparently getting permission from SOCAR is next to impossible.

Pretty cool, huh? Actually, this massive display of firepower was rolling through Red Square to celebrate Victory Day (День Победы), which commemorates the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. This was the first time in 18 years that the Russians paraded their nuclear missile launchers across Red Square:

The United States expressed no alarm over the parade. Russia has become a leading global arms exporter again, but its wares are almost all items designed decades ago. A Pentagon spokesman, echoing a view common among military analysts, had characterized the planned military review as a hollow show of dated gear bearing fresh coats of paint.

“If they wish to take out their old equipment and take it for a spin and check it out,” said the spokesman, Geoff Morrell, “they’re more than welcome to do so.”

Oh, snap.

Thanks, dudes.

Last Call on the London Tube:

London’s new mayor, Boris Johnson, left, said that he was banning alcohol on the city’s public transportation system, effective next month, in an effort to “end the problem of drunken and intimidating behavior on the Tube.” Some subway workers said they welcomed the move as a way to change the unpleasant late-night atmosphere in the subways. But Bob Crow, general secretary of the union representing transportation employees, said the plan had been put into place too hastily and would be difficult to enforce. “Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done,” he told Agence France-Presse.

When I first moved to the UK, I was pretty shocked to see people eating fast food and downing cans of beer on the Tube. It was a big change from the DC metro system, where they arrest 12 year olds for eating french fries in the stations.

Whatever. So a few hours later I grab another cookie from the pile of leftovers, and my fortune is exactly the same as my previous one. WTF? Maybe this is a sign I should play the lotto numbers on the back.

Your friends have voted on your strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS:
person with the best smile
person with the best sense of humor
most powerful

WEAKNESSES:
nicest
merriest

My parents will be thrilled to know that those high orthodontist bills were worth it. I am not sure where this "most powerful" characteristic comes from, however, as I am just a typical worker in our nation's capital. Still, I am vowing to make more of an effort to be merry, or whatever.

A pipeline that Russia and Germany want to build under the Baltic Sea is facing so much opposition and scrutiny that the pipeline company, Nord Stream, has yet to obtain a single construction permit from any of the countries surrounding the sea, according to government officials.

[...]

Since the announcement of the pipeline deal nearly three years ago, Nord Stream has been beset by problems. It has been forced to alter the routes because of a boundary dispute between Denmark and Poland. It has been refused access to Estonia’s territorial waters. And last month, Nord Stream abandoned the idea of building platforms to support the pipes after objections, based on environmental considerations, by Sweden.

The costs have also increased, from around 4.5 billion euros, or $7 billion, to about 7.4 billion euros, according to the company.

The financing can only be finalized once the company has agreed on the final route with the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. They include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden, which have to issue the permits, and four other countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. As yet, Nord Stream has received no permits to start laying the pipes in the Baltic Sea.

Forces from Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes over the territory Sunday, an Abkhazian official said.

Georgia denied the assertion and traded accusations with Russia, which is struggling with the West for influence in the country strategically located on the Caspian Sea. The two nations each say the incident indicates the other is preparing for war over the breakaway region.

Dude, where's Georgia? NOT ON THE CASPIAN.

Holidays for most of us mean sun, sea and sand – but not for madcap Andy Drury and Nigel Green.

Instead of flicking through travel brochures looking for exotic hot spots, they check out the war zones and trouble spots where our Foreign Office warns people NOT to go — then go there.

During their adventures they have:

- Been shot at by Russian troops while trying to sneak over a border into Chechnya.

- Been chased by rampaging elephants in Uganda.

- Visited Chernobyl nuclear power station, risking radiation sickness.

- Fled the Taliban in Afghanistan.

- Been held at gunpoint by the Republican Guard in Iran.

Construction worker Andy, 42, and legal executive Nigel, 45, both from Puttenham, Surrey, have even been divorced by their long-suffering wives after their twice-a-year trips drove the women to distraction.

But the cousins, who reckon they each spend £3,000 a year on their adventures, keep going back for more.

Father-of-two Andy said: "Living on your wits and on the edge every day of your holiday is such a buzz. There is no way we could settle down with a book on a beach.

"In many of the places we go we meet UN peacekeeping troops who are in armoured cars and full battle kit while we stroll around taking pictures in shorts and flip-flops.

"We have eaten insects in Uganda, camel in the Sudan, bear in Trans-Dniester, a breakaway republic from Moldova, and had more goat curries than I care to think about."

Nigel said: "I think most of the government troops or rebels we encounter come to the conclusion we are not undercover soldiers or spies — but are just barking mad."

So, for this reason, I don't have a very large collection of wine. In fact, I own only one bottle, as pictured below:

This is a bottle of Baku-Ceyhan wine produced by Tovuz-Baltiya Ltd, an Azeri wine company. I had some leftover manat burning a hole in my pocket and decided to waste a few minutes in the Baku airport duty free store while waiting for my flight back to Tbilisi. The store products consist mainly of caviar, vodka, and more caviar. I was hoping for a few oil-related souvenirs (I mean, seriously, this is Azerbaijan. What's a girl gotta do to get a mini barrel of authentic Azeri crude with Aliyev's face plastered on it?) but was thoroughly disappointed until I came across this bottle of Baku-Ceyhan wine. It's named after (and the label has a map of) the 1,099 mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which begins at the Sangachal Terminal near Baku, runs through Georgia, and terminates at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, where Azeri crude is loaded onto tankers and transported to market. Having completed my master's degree by writing a dissertation on the BTC pipeline, you could say it's rather close to my heart. Not a bad souvenir for a few manat.

These Croc rip-offs are the most hideous shoes I have ever seen in my life. What's even more insulting is that they have appropriated the term "Cali" for these shoes (I assume they are referring to California and not Cali, Colombia) when, in reality, no self-respecting Californian would be caught dead in them. They should rename these shoes "Nebraska gear" or "Delaware gear" or whatev.

Real Cali gear

Protester Konstantin Timokhov, 21, said he was deeply worried that the government will force him to work in a contaminated area when he graduates from university.

"The government is hiding the truth from us. My health and my future are in danger," he said.

Radiation levels have declined substantially in most areas near Chernobyl, but scientists disagree on the level of risk.

Some doctors who work in towns downwind from Chernobyl say the health effects are still being felt, and students being sent into these areas are afraid.

Kasya Markouskaya, 23, has been ordered to spend two years in Buda-Koshelyovo, a contamination-area town, when she graduates with a journalism degree this spring.

"My situation is little different from that of a slave who has been forced to do dangerous work," Markouskaya told The Associated Press recently. If she refuses, she will either be stripped of her diploma or required to reimburse the state for the full cost of her education. When she entered university, there were no such strings attached.

The work assignments began last year, and about one-fourth of this year's 21,000 graduates are being sent to the contaminated areas.

Vice Prime Minister Alexander Kosinets said at parliamentary hearings Friday that if the work assignments were canceled, these regions would be left without the doctors, teachers, agricultural workers and other specialists they need.

Many people from these areas moved away; Lukashenko now wants to repopulate them so agriculture and industry can be revived.

Some of the young professionals sent to contaminated regions last year have already fled. About 800 graduates have refused to take up their work assignments this year, the Education Ministry said.