A Few More Notes

Hello again,

Well, with all the things that are transpiring, it's easy to hear everyone holding their breath, waiting for the next pin to drop! As usual, all the commentators have an opinion on where this economic business is going to bottom out or at least slow down, but - most unfortunately - they are all opinions! There are no facts, because none of us (at least as far as I know) can see into the future.

There have been numerous governmental activities to try to stabilise the situation, but in my opinion, the governmental activities are what really got us here in the first place. More pressure from the government to do this and that results in more searching for ways to either beat City Hall (which is usually not possible) or find a way around or over or under or through the strangle-hold on whatever it is that's constraining business. That, in turn, usually results in more problems for business that are avoided by more contortions and manoeuvring that ultimately lead to more government interference, etc. A devil's circle!

Is there a way out? In pure theory, of course. In practice, I really doubt it, at least not in your and my lifetimes. The best we can hope for, in my opinion, is that the whole thing doesn't go down the proverbial tubes before there is some sort of recovery.

If you think about it, what I wrote there can apply to a multitude of industries and governments! Is it oil and the USA, or real estate and Spain, or automobiles and Germany? The answer is "yes!"

As individuals, all we can do is hold on and hope that the ride has a safe and reasonable ending.

Hang on tight!

Craig

Your comments are invited!

A Few Notes

Hi there!

These are just a few notes about recent changes to the blog.

The neat video centerpiece we had was supposed to be a current events item, but after months of the same picture and the same news, I removed it! It's too bad; it was a great concept. Just to be sure it wasn't a fluke, I checked out some others from the same source, and I discovered I was looking at trading news from 26 December (2007)! Maybe I'll find something else in the future that'a current and kept current (like the OGJ headlines that are there).

I also updated the blog list and the RSS feeds a little.

I will move my "life story" to another location soon, but I don't know if that will be before I finish today or not.

That's about it!

As usual, we welcome your comments!

Craig

Winning the Oil End-Game

This is the title of a presentation given by Emory Lovins at one of the TED sessions in Monterey, California, in 2005 (Technology, Entertainment, Design, at http://www.ted.com/). If you have the time, I would like to read your comments as oil business professionals. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the picture you find there.

This should be interesting for you. Please enjoy and comment!

Ciao for now,

Craig

More Questions

Hello again,

I had a phone call from a person from the UK recently, who wanted some general information about this blog, Vacuum Distillation 101, and about me as well.

Aside from some background questions, the first question was, is there any company hidden behind the blog that might be skewing the content in any way? The answer to this question is NO!! Good 2004 Ltd. is a small campany, located in Bulgaria, that belongs 90% to me and 10% to my business partner, who is not an "oily" person. Basically what that means is WYSIWYG, that what you see is what you get! I certainly must have opinions that are not necessarily popular with portions of the refining community; I won't use the blog as a platform to preach about these, but I won't shy away from confrontation, either.

The second question this gentleman had was, is the content strictly limited to vacuum distillation, or can it be / will it be expanded into other areas. If you look at the most recent post, you'll see the answer right here in black-and-white... urrrr white and blue; certainly recipes for mussels coming out of the cooling water system are not a hard-core topic for vacuum distillation! :-) More seriously, the answer is still "no" - and if the situation warrants, I am more than willing to digress, particularly in the direction of unit operations.

I guess that's all for now. I hope everybody enjoys the rest of the summer.

Ciao for now,

Craig

Mussels for Dinner?

Hi there!

Based on the previous post, I had an interesting question (tongue-in-cheek I'm sure) from an old friend who wanted to remain anonymous. It went something like this...

"Do you have any recipes for the mussels that we get out of our sea water cooling system? They seem to like to grow in the tubes where [for them, I suppose] it's nice and warm in the summer. They are a strange shape (look like mini-cigars) but by the time we clean them out, they're already steamed!"

Well Buck, I have to say that if they're already steamed, the choices are rather limited. I suspect if you put them in the refrigerator for a while and then served them on fresh lettuce with horseradish and mayonaise, they could be delicious. At least as long as you didn't have any HC leaks into the cooling water!

Another choice, albeit not so traditional, would be to serve them up in an icecream glass with a little lettuce for decoration and the American shrimp cocktail sauce - ketchup, horseradish, Worcester sauce, and lemon juice.

Any other ideas? :-) Bon appetite!

Craig