March 2011, Vol. 238 No. 3

Dresser-Rand Group Inc. announced March 3 that it has signed a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire Grupo Guascor S.L. for an enterprise value of euro 500 million ($690 million) in a cash and stock transaction.

Greene’s Energy Group, a leading provider of integrated services for drilling, production, pipeline, construction and process operations, has named Maury Dumba Vice President of Business Development, announced CEO Bob Vilyus.

William Jackson "Jack" Bowen, former CEO of Florida Gas Company and Transco Energy, died March 20, in Houston, TX.

Advertisers from the print edition of Pipeline & Gas Journal, March 2011, Vol. 238 No. 3.

Polyguard has appointed Billy Russell to the position of Technical Sales Representative for its pipeline division.

T.D. Williamson, Inc. (TDW) has announced that Mike Benjamin has joined the company as Vice President, Offshore Pipeline Solutions, located in Houston.

My gosh, it’s back……’pain at the pump,’ I mean. This morning I filled up at the neighborhood Exxon station at $3.19 a gallon, a quarter more than I paid the previous week. When I leave today I expect the price will rise to $3.25 with no end in sight unless some brave Libyan soldier decides to pull rank on the colonel by doing what Gaddafi should have done himself long ago, putting a bullet through his diseased brain.

The ability to use a single inline inspection (ILI) tool in one run to record multiple datasets is becoming increasingly important to pipeline owners and operators as they face a growing need to inspect their assets for a wide variety of defects.

In the process of natural gas transmission, almost all power of the compressor stations is used to overcome the friction consumption between the flowing gas and pipeline wall. Therefore, large amounts of resources are spent on compressor station maintenance every year.

The Clock Spring repair system was the subject of a rigorous research and development program conducted under the management of the Gas Research Institute (GRI, now known as GTI). The program extended over a decade and considered long-term degradation.

Corrosion of offshore oil and gas pipelines is a critical problem that can lead to catastrophic failure if not properly managed—from the design stage of the pipeline system through ongoing monitoring and maintenance.

Robert H. Chalker became executive director of NACE International only last August, but in that six-period he has had plenty of opportunities to acquaint himself with one of the pressing issues facing today’s business world and society at large: the continuing deterioration of critical infrastructure and the ongoing efforts to at least control, if not avert, the effects of corrosion.

The author began working as a cathodic protection (CP) practitioner in August 1952 and, in 1954, conducted tests while observing his first excavation of a leak on a coated steel pipeline under CP near Moran, KS.

Mechanical damage, corrosion and cracking are common threats affecting both liquid and gas pipelines. However, there are significant differences in the manifestations and frequency of these threats depending on the nature of the medium transported.

Pipelines are continuing to boost their share of the hydrocarbon liquids transportation market, according to the latest annual report released by The Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL).

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) has locked horns with PHMSA over the agency's advisory bulletin on pipeline safety.

A natural gas explosion rocked a downtown neighborhood in Allentown, PA on Feb. 9, killing five residents, leveling several houses, and causing fires that burned for hours through an entire row of nearby homes.

A merger was formed Jan. 1 between CPL & Associates and the engineering division of CEESI, forming CEESI Measurement Solutions (CMS). CMS will provide on-site/off-site analysis and measurement solutions for lost-and-unaccounted-for fluids.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a Feb. 8 fire at a natural gas processing plant in Mont Belvieu, TX that killed one worker. Investigators found the remains of Rick Shaw a day after a fire ignited in what may have been a ruptured pipeline that carried natural gas. The blast occurred at the Enterprise Products plant.

Ziff Energy released a report which provides a production outlook for the major gas supply basins in North America.

GE closed its $3 billion acquisition of Dresser, Inc. on Feb. 1. The move significantly expands GE’s offerings for energy and industrial customers worldwide and marks the latest in a series of acquisitions over the last 10 years that have transformed GE’s global energy portfolio.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America has formed a new executive-level task force on pipeline safety. Christopher A. Helms, Executive Vice President and Group CEO of NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage, was named Chairman of the new task force.

Broward County jurors awarded Florida Gas Transmission Co. $82.7 million in damages for failure by the Department of Transportation/Florida Turnpike Enterprise to reimburse FGT for relocation of its natural gas pipelines in connection with a turnpike widening project.

M2M Data Corporation, a leader in advanced remote monitoring services for oil and gas markets, has acquired the operating assets of Implicit Monitoring Solutions.

U.S. natural gas production growth is expected to cap at 5% as oversupply volumes test the limits of storage and pipeline capacity later this year, according to a new market alert from BENTEK Energy. The Sky Is the Limit? U.S. Shale Gas Soars!™ says that until mid-2011, improvements in drilling efficiency, vestiges of $5-6/MMBtu hedging programs, held-by-production (HBP) drilling and the attractive economics of rich (high-Btu) gas, among a host of other factors will drive further production increases.

Federal pipeline regulators want the trans-Alaska pipeline operator begin major work to make the 33-year-old, 800-mile line less susceptible to accidents as the amount of oil flowing through it declines, according to an AP report on Feb. 14.

Port Dolphin Energy, LLC received key environmental permits from the State of Florida to allow construction of onsite components for its offshore LNG terminal.

Natural gas is the key to a smart energy future through its efficient, safe and reliable delivery and its use as an abundant, domestic, affordable, low-carbon energy source for all segments of the economy, according to a white paper released by the Gas Technology Institute and Navigant Consulting.

Wood Group's Alliance Engineering has been awarded a contract for the engineering and design of an additional electric motor-driven compressor and associated equipment at Transco's Station 125 in Monroe, GA.

TransCanada Corporation’s Bison Pipeline, constructed by Michels Pipeline Construction and Price Gregory International, became operational Jan. 14, 2011.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has signed an agreement to sell CNOOC International Limited a 33.3% undivided interest in Chesapeake’s 800,000 net oil and natural gas leasehold acres in Colorado and Wyoming.

Cosalt Offshore is scheduled to provide inspection services to Shell at two UK onshore gas processing plants.

DCP Midstream LLC has signed long-term agreements with Pioneer joint venture partners -- Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc., Reliance Eagleford Upstream Holding LP and Newpek LLC.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. has purchased a 39-mile carbon dioxide pipeline from Trinity Pipeline L.P. with plans to convert it to crude service.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. announced March 22 it has entered into a 10-year agreement with two producers in the Eagle Ford Shale play of South Texas to provide firm crude oil transportation and marketing services.

Qatar Petroleum and Shell announced march 23 the first flow of dedicated offshore gas into the Pearl GTL plant located in Ras Laffan Industrial City in the State of Qatar.

Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a detail design contract for two deepwater export pipelines located in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC and Golden Pass Pipeline LLC has been granted in service authority by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and has commenced commercial operations.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) Director Michael Bromwich announced the structures and responsibilities of two new independent agencies that will carry out the offshore energy management and enforcement functions once assigned to the former Minerals Management Service (MMS).

Kitimat LNG partners, Apache Canada Ltd. and EOG Resources Canada Inc., have awarded KBR the FEED contract for a liquefaction and export facility on British Columbia’s west coast.

Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. and M3 Midstream LLC (Momentum) plan to build a 180-mile pipeline originating in LaSalle and Live Oak County, TX and terminating in Corpus Christi, TX.

Magnum Gas Storage, LLC, announced March 23 that it has received a FERC 7(c) permit for its planned gas storage facility in central Utah.

McDermott International, Inc.’s subsidiary, McDermott Caspian Contractors, Inc., and the state oil company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) have formed a strategic alliance.

M3 Midstream LLC, known as Momentum, announced March 31 that it has signed long-term gas gathering agreements with Chesapeake Energy Marketing, Inc. and Statoil Natural Gas LLC as anchor customers on its Appalachia Gathering System.

GL Noble Denton has issued new guidelines for float-over installations and for moorings.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is extending the reach of its conventional pipeline system to provide alternative liquids transportation solutions to producers in the greater Edson, Alberta area.

PetroChina is buying 50% of a prolific shale gas project from Canada's Encana Corp for $5.4 billion, marking the largest Chinese investment yet in a foreign natural gas asset.

Petrofac has won a US$1.2 billion lump-sum EPC contract from In Salah Gas, co-owned by Sonatrach, BP and Statoil, to develop the Garet el Befinat, Hasi Moumene, In Salah and Gour Mochmound fields in Algeria.

MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources, LLC, and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. announced March 22 the development of Project Mariner West, a pipeline project to deliver Marcellus Shale ethane from MarkWest Liberty’s Houston, Pennsylvania processing and fractionation complex to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada markets.

Provident Energy Ltd. and and AltaGas Ltd. plan to construct a 16-inch rich gas pipeline from a Montney gas plant to the AltaGas/Provident Younger deep cut natural gas processing facility in northeastern British Columbia.

Oil and gas environmental waste contractor TWMA is to install and operate its offshore waste recycling system on the Stena Spey semi-submersible drilling rig working in the UK North Sea for Chevron.

Dallas-based Southcross Energy has entered into a long-term agreement with Swift Energy Company to provide natural gas gathering, transportation and processing services.

The SapuraAcergy/Subsea 7 joint venture has been awarded a contract valued at approximately US$160 million for the development of the Montara Development Project in the southern Timor Sea.

Technip has won a Statoil contract valued at approximately Euro 90 million, for the Gygrid field development located in the Norwegian Sea in water ranging from f 265 - 330 meters.

Watco Companies, LLC and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. have announced an agreement to construct and operate several rail transload facilities in key markets for loading and unloading crude oil.

Watco Companies LLC and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. have agreed to construct and operate several rail transload facilities in key markets.

What is the latest with America’s petroleum liquids pipelines organization as these critical systems continue to increase their share of the petroleum liquids transportation market? In particular, what is the group thinking about the latest notice of proposed rule making issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

At its commercial debut in the Italian city of Udine, the Self Propelled Caliper Tractor (SPC Tractor) developed by Analytic Pipe demonstrated its strengths in inline inspection. Excellent caliper data was produced on a 12.5-km section of a 42-inch pipeline.

At the forefront of pipeline and gas company deliberations, corrosion has its way of creeping up as the main topic of conversation. Years after a project is completed, the fear and threat of corrosion endangering a company’s investment and our way of life is real.

As internal violence continues to destabilize Libya, deliveries of pipeline gas to European markets from that North African nation have ceased altogether.

Det Norske Veritas has completed its eight-month forensic examination of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer (BOP), made at the request of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), and determined that the primary cause of trouble was that the blind shear rams intended to cut through the drill pipe were unable to sever a bent pipe. The report is publicly available as of March 23, in two PDF volumes, Vol.

On March 1, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America members formally adopted a set of five guiding principles for pipeline safety, renewing the gas-transmission industry’s commitment to safe and reliable pipeline operations.

Technip announced March 16 that the Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) has awarded it a contract for the design, procurement and fabrication of the umbilical, riser and flowline components of MWCC’s expanded well containment response system for the US Gulf of Mexico, set for completion in 2012.

A new salary survey reveals that American oil and gas industry professionals’ wages have held up well despite uncertainty in the wider economy.

The new onshore wireless seismic acquisition system is designed to provide a clearer understanding of the earth’s subsurface, thus increasing prospects for discovering greater quantities of oil and gas to meet the world’s increasing energy needs.

Corrosion control products from Matcor, Industrial Fabrics, American Innovations, Ergil Group, Rhino Marking & Protection Systems, R.C. Systems, Inc., Stahlin, Intergraph, Polyguard Products, Spectrum External Line Inspection Technologies, TechCorr, Adalet and IICORR/Subspection.