Man carries lit propane tank into Florida restaurant; Greek tanker blast injures 14

A man carried a lit propane tank into a Florida restaurant, NBC News reported. The incident has no price effect. It may raise questions from insurers and from local officials for retailers who run cylinder exchange, which is what puts a police-blotter item on a fuel operator's desk.

The Florida cylinder

Nothing in the report says where the cylinder came from. Operators who run exchange cages have a procedure question either way.

Exchange programs run on a padlock and a clerk. The working assumption is that a 20-pound cylinder leaves the lot for a grill. That arrangement has been in place for years and has held up well enough to stay.

One incident is unlikely to change it. National coverage of a lit tank inside a restaurant can still get a city council interested, and local rules on cylinder sales tend to arrive one municipality at a time.

The useful step is smaller than that. Florida operators may want to know what their store manager is supposed to do when someone buys a tank and walks away on foot rather than driving off with it. If the answer is unclear, that is worth fixing before an underwriter or a council asks.

The Greek tanker

eKathimerini reported a propane tanker explosion that injured 14. The early account gives a casualty count and no cause. A cause finding, whenever it comes, is worth reading.

The £10m fund

The Herald is asking why a £10m emergency heating oil fund failed to deliver. It is a British domestic story with no read on US barrels. The reminder for US operators who run assistance-program deliveries is that appropriated money is not delivered gallons, and delivery capacity means drivers and trucks.

What to watch

Greek investigators may name a cause on the tanker. A Florida jurisdiction may respond with cylinder-sale rules. Price information for this market comes from the EIA's weekly propane stocks report.