Fuel Oil

A delivery worker pumped 58 gallons of fuel oil into a home converted to gas heat, causing an explosion and fire that destroyed two homes and hospitalized one woman, authorities said Tuesday. Police said the unidentified worker apparently stopped at the wrong address Monday evening.

Thick, tarry fuel oil disgorged into San Francisco Bay from a damaged cargo ship in 2007 was surprisingly toxic to fish embryos, devastating the herring population that feeds seabirds, whales and the bay's last commercial fishery, scientists reported Monday. Although the bay's herring spawning grounds are now free of toxic oil, studies have found that the moderate-size spill of 54,000 gallons had an unexpectedly large and lethal effect. The culprit, a common type of ship fuel called "bunker fuel," appears to be especially toxic to fish embryos, particularly when exposed to sunlight, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

About 2,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil spilled from a barge into the Mississippi River on Wednesday, and some of the oil was sucked into the New Orleans drinking system, officials said. There was no health threat, said Joe Puglia, a spokesman for the Sewerage and Water Board, adding that most of the oil had been removed.

When Peter Kupec was a boy, his mother cooked on a coal stove in the kitchen, which heated the whole house. Now 80, Kupec still uses coal to heat his Lansford home in Pennsylvania's anthracite region, which is estimated to have billions of tons of coal deposits to fuel industry and warm living rooms for centuries. So he was surprised when he called a dealer a few weeks ago to buy two tons of coal. "They said 'My God, I don't know when we can deliver it,'" Kupec said. "It might be six to eight weeks.

A barge carrying nearly 270,000 gallons of light fuel oil sank off Spain's southern coast, threatening more ecological damage even as workers continued cleaning up a massive spill in the northwest from November. The Spabunker IV sank in stormy weather in Algeciras Bay near Gibraltar, officials said. The body of the captain, Miguel Roig, was found in the sea hours later; two crew members were rescued. Oil from the ship's engines washed ashore, but frogmen said there were no leaks in the hull.

Navy crews continued to work Thursday in Long Beach Harbor to mop up traces of about 5,000 gallons of fuel oil that spilled from a decommissioned frigate last weekend, officials said. The fuel oil spilled into the harbor Sunday while the fuel system of the Brewton was being flushed at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. An improperly aligned valve was responsible for the spill, a Navy spokesman said.

Two ships collided in fog 20 miles off Galveston, Tex., in the Gulf of Mexico, but no one was injured, the Coast Guard reported. Fuel oil from the Margaret Lykes, a New Orleans-based container ship, was leaking slowly from a hole in the 618-foot vessel. The bow of the Shoun Emperor, a 323-foot Panamanian tanker, sustained considerable damage, but none of its cargo had spilled. Coast Guard inspectors said they believed the situation posed no threat to the environment.

A 4,200-gallon fuel oil spill slowed ship traffic Wednesday in busy Los Angeles Harbor as cleanup crews continued the task of sopping up the gooey substance, authorities said. The cleanup was expected to be completed by Wednesday evening, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Beals. "It's kind of like used crankcase oil, pretty heavy, pretty gooey, real sticky, black," Coast Guard Cmdr. Joe Brusseau said in describing the oil.

About 3,000 barrels of fuel oil leaked into and along the Loire River after a pipe ruptured while a tanker was being loaded at a refinery, the oil company Total said Monday. Cleanup teams were using floating dams and Total mobilized a 200-member team of its own to cope with the spill at the Donges refinery in western France that began late Sunday, the company said in a statement.

Navy demolition experts with grenades failed to set fire to a grounded cargo ship Wednesday night, leaving it vulnerable to an advancing storm that threatened to break it apart and cause a disastrous oil spill near Oregon's scenic Coos Bay.

Next week, the California Air Resources Board, or CARB -- the same agency that only five years ago gained notoriety for its role in "killing" the electric car -- could be in a position to deliver another crippling blow to the United States' effort to achieve energy independence.

A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour flight Tuesday to test a biofuel that could lower airplane emissions and cut costs, Air New Zealand said. One engine of a Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel. Biofuels were once regarded as impractical for aviation because most freeze at the low temperatures encountered at cruising altitudes, but jatropha has an even lower freezing point than jet fuel.

Honeywell International Inc. said it had developed a new nitrogen-based fertilizer that was difficult to ignite -- a discovery that could reduce criminals' ability to make explosives used in major terrorist attacks like the Oklahoma City bombing. Honeywell said its patented fertilizer combined ammonium sulfate with ammonium nitrate, providing the nitrogen and sulfur needed for plant nutrition but making it largely useless as a fuel for explosives. When mixed with substances such as fuel oil -- a volatile combination often used to make bombs -- the new fertilizer wouldn't detonate, the company said.

About 3,000 barrels of fuel oil leaked into and along the Loire River after a pipe ruptured while a tanker was being loaded at a refinery, the oil company Total said Monday. Cleanup teams were using floating dams and Total mobilized a 200-member team of its own to cope with the spill at the Donges refinery in western France that began late Sunday, the company said in a statement.

Crews battled harsh bouts of wind and lashing rain Tuesday as they struggled to clean miles of oil-blackened coastline after a fierce weekend storm tore a petroleum tanker into pieces. As much as 2,000 tons of oil poured into the sea Sunday, when a storm raked Russia's eastern coast with strong wind and high waves. Environmentalists called the spill an ecological disaster and accused the government of allowing careless shipping practices.

North Korea told U.S. officials Saturday that it had shut down its nuclear reactor, a major move by the nation's reclusive and unpredictable leaders toward scaling back their controversial nuclear program. U.S. State Department officials made the announcement as a team of U.N. inspectors arrived in North Korea to begin monitoring the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

San Diego Gas & Electric, which stopped buying fuel oil under long-term contracts in part because of the repercussions of an ill-advised 1978 fuel oil deal, has purchased 540,000 barrels of low-sulphur fuel on the spot market. SDG&E has shied away from long-term fuel oil contracts for more than five years, according to Jim Nugent, SDG&E's fuel contracts supervisor.

The last of more than 365,000 gallons of fuel oil was removed from a ship that exploded and caught fire over the weekend, killing three crew members. The Coast Guard said the threat of a major oil spill from the OMI Charger was over, and salvage workers began removing containment booms deployed to protect the Galveston Bay shoreline. The Coast Guard said the explosion may have been triggered by two welders killed in the blast.

Five weeks before election day, California oil companies and a rich Hollywood producer are waging an $85-million battle over an initiative that would impose up to a $485-million-a-year tax on the oil industry. In any other state, the $45 million that oil producers have shelled out to block Proposition 87 would be a political gusher of historic proportions. But in California this year, there's an equalizer: Stephen L.

The azure waters of the Mediterranean have long been a symbol of Lebanon's fun-loving character and proud maritime history. But the country's prized 135-mile coast has become its biggest environmental disaster. Thick gobs of oil have clogged the coast's coral reefs. Sandy beaches have become black-stained no-go zones. Rocky fishermen's coves have become dark soups of crude. All are the result of Israeli airstrikes on seaside oil tanks in the first days of the war against Hezbollah.