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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gamesmistress who wrote (75440)	10/3/2000 1:21:11 PM
From: in_outdaily	Respond to of 95453

From the SF Chronicle this am... Coast Guard Orders Ship Out of Bay Tosco vessel cited for 30 safety violations Charlie Goodyear, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, October 3, 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered a tanker under contract to Tosco Corp. to leave San Francisco Bay by today, saying the vessel is too unsafe to allow the delivery of 580,000 barrels at the company's Rodeo refinery. The tanker Neptune Dorado has been held at anchorage near the San Francisco Airport since last Thursday when Coast Guard officials discovered about 30 U.S. and international safety and environmental violations. The ship, which has not been to the United States since 1996, did not have the proper paperwork either. ``What we saw on paper didn't match what we saw on the vessel,'' said Commander Steve Boyle. Authorities said the order to leave the bay was extremely rare. ``I haven't seen it at this port,'' said Lt. Augustus Bannan of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office. ``But this ship does not have a proper safety management system. And we're talking about transferring an extremely flamable product.'' The Neptune Dorado was expected to deliver the oil to the Rodeo refinery over the weekend and the delay had Tosco concerned it might have to disrupt normal refining operations, Coast Guard officials said. ``We are working with Tosco to find out about their oil supplies,'' Bannan said. ``We are trying to work with them to get this done but we don't want to have anybody hurt just for the specific need for Tosco to get their oil.'' As of late yesterday, the ship was still under orders to leave the bay by 6 p.m. today. A Tosco spokesman said yesterday afternoon that after an appeal from the ship's owner, officials with the Coast Guard in Washington, D.C., had cleared the Neptune Dorado. ``We do not expect any disruptions to our refinery operations,'' said Tosco spokesman Jeff Lyon. But Bannan said the Coast Guard had not yet decided on the appeal. He said no orders to release the Neptune Dorado had been relayed to his office. ``We would be notified immediately,'' he added. The detention of the ship was more unwelcome news for Tosco, a company still struggling to repair its reputation after a refinery fire killed four workers last year and a public dispute this summer with water quality officials over dioxin releases. Environmentalists said safety deficiencies on the Neptune Dorado show Tosco -- which sold off its trouble-plagued Avon refinery earlier this year --still has yet to change its ways. ``It's no surprise that Tosco would be using a ship that no other major oil company would use,'' said Denny Larson of Communities for a Better Environment. ``They're a leader in the race to the bottom.'' Jonathan Kaplan of San Francisco Bay Keeper said, ``I think Tosco has demonstrated a lack of regard for health and safety and the environment. This sounds like yet another example.'' About the order to move the Neptune Dorado out of the bay, Kaplan said, ``I've never heard of anything like that.'' Coast Guard officials said they would likely ask a judge to assess civil penalties against the ship's owner.