December 2014, Vol. 241, No. 12

Advertisers from the print edition of Pipeline & Gas Journal, December 2014, Vol. 241, No. 12.

It’s just a few days before Thanksgiving, so let’s talk turkey and football. The Keystone pipeline has never really been about energy. It’s been a political football almost since the day TransCanada proposed a pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands product to Gulf Coast refineries.

The reasons for selecting Abu Dhabi for the International Pipe Line & Offshore Contractors Association (IPLOCA) Convention are apparent: the United Arab Emirates is at the center of the oil and gas industry with the seventh largest oil reserves in the world; there are important pipeline projects crossing the country; and its history and sites make it an interesting place to visit.

Upstream, you have producers and gas processors that deliver natural gas to fill the growing demand for the clean-burning fuel. Downstream, you have hundreds of miles of pipeline infrastructure to deliver the gas to market.

When and wherever there is a need to inform and educate oil and gas professionals on the intricacies and latest developments in the industry, you will probably find B.J. Lowe and his Houston-based staff of Clarion Technical Conferences.

Improvements in long-term performance of polyethylene (PE) piping compounds have created interest in the use of higher operating pressures for gas distribution piping systems. In Canada, this has culminated in the approval of PE 100 pipe with an operating pressure of 145 pounds per square inch gage (psig) for SDR 11 pipe, and the approval of PE 2708 PLUS and PE 4710 PLUS compounds that qualify for a 0.45 design factor for gas applications.

Ian Davidson, member of Parliament: “Let me be clear. If the [natural gas distribution] companies find themselves in a position where the number of health and safety breaches is increasing, a plausible defense for them is to say that they cannot afford to do it because you are squeezing them too tightly.”

While statistically pipelines remain the safest method to transport natural gas and liquids, growing demands on the aging infrastructure has increasingly pointed to the need for upgrades – sometimes tragically so.

Global demand for polyethylene resins – HDPE, LLDPE and LDPE – will rise 4% per year to 99.6 million metric tons in 2018, valued at $164 billion. Gains will match overall world economic growth, fueled by an acceleration in consumer spending and manufacturing activity.

Greyrock Energy, a company whose strategy is to transform natural gas into premium transportation fuels, announced on Nov. 4 a final investment decision (FID) to deliver one of the world’s first small-scale Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) facilities.

America’s natural gas utilities work with federal and state regulators to build and maintain a 21st century infrastructure capable of safely and reliably delivering natural gas to homes and business throughout the United States.

Instead of trucking light crude oil on a hundred miles of dirt roads in a remote area of Australia, it is now being conveyed underground using a thermoplastic, flexible composite pipe. This undertaking was recently awarded the Project of the Year by the Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc. (PPI) for its Energy Piping Systems Division (EPSD).

Selecting a suitable leak detection system is not an easy task for pipeline operators. The system must meet the needs of the particular application and comply with relevant regulations. The most advanced technology available uses the extended real-time transient model (E-RTTM) model, which guarantees reliable leak monitoring for various types and lengths of pipelines, even under transient operating conditions.

Hard work is said to result in living the American dream. This ethos is one of the reasons McElroy has been a viable company for 60 years, but it’s just one part of the equation that made McElroy the world’s leading manufacturer of butt fusion machines for thermoplastic pipe.

These are unquestionably exciting times in America’s natural gas industry as wide arrays of statistics continue to show. Homeowners and businesses that use natural gas are enjoying considerable cost savings and ample, reliable supplies that will only increase as the nation’s pipeline grid spreads to regions that have not been accustomed to using the environmentally friendly and domestically produced fuel.

A “boom paradox” is creating the perfect storm in liquids hydrocarbons measurement. Baby boomers hired during an earlier peak in the industry are retiring. Exiting with them is vast knowledge in areas such as measurement. Thanks mainly to shale plays, the industry is booming and new players are entering the market. Simultaneously, the industry is in the process of implementing significantly updated measurement standards. Can measurement operations ride out the storm?

I’ve only been working in the pipeline engineering business for a short time, but have noticed a disparity between how the quality systems of the two main portions of the business are structured. This, even though corporate quality and construction quality systems both follow the International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001:2008 format of quality standards.

Although plastic pipe has been actively used in the natural gas industry since the late 1950s, it is still considered by some to be the “the new kid on the block.” Perhaps one of the key reasons for this reputation is the fact that the plastics industry continues to push the envelope in creating higher performance materials that inspire new compositions and installation techniques. And the main benefactors are gas utilities, exploration and production companies and ultimately their customers.

Global oil demand will grow 1 MMbpd in 2014, or about 300,000 bpd more than the IEA’s latest forecast, according to ESAI Energy’s recently published Global Fuels Outlook. The report highlights discrepancies between ESAI Energy’s and the IEA’s forecasts for demand growth and provides an outlook on petroleum product markets – and spreads to crude – through 2016.

A study from the Freedonia Group by industry analyst Matt Zielenski projects steel oil and gas pipe demand to increase 7.6% annually through 2018, reaching $26.8 billion.

Latin America is home to vast quantities of natural gas and oil. Pipeline construction in this region is driven by the need to transport, process and distribute newly discovered oil and gas to market, or to build dedicated pipelines in anticipation of a large increase in gas-fired power generation.

The U.S. oil and gas industry employed 1,012,800 in 2013, an increase of 30,800 from the previous year. Job growth in the U.S. oil and natural gas industry continued to rise in the first quarter of 2014, adding an additional 12,400 jobs, for a total of 1,025,200.

The ascent of Republicans to majority status in the Senate in 2015 means the pipeline industry will be able to play more effective defense against Obama administration regulations it opposes and more effective offense behind energy legislation it supports.

Air Products has signed an agreement to supply its proprietary LNG process technology and equipment to Technip for a mid-scale LNG project in Fengzhen City, Inner Mongolia Province, China.

Aux Sable Liquid Products LP announced a $130 million project that will increase the fractionation capacity of its extraction and fractionation facilities in Channahon, IL by 24,500 bpd.

Constitution Pipeline Company, LLC reported a key regulatory milestone toward approval to construct its proposed pipeline on a schedule that targets increasing natural gas supply to New York and New England markets in time for the winter 2015-16 heating season.

Bechtel recently started construction at the Tilbury LNG facility in British Columbia.

Dominion, on behalf of its joint venture partners in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, has submitted a request to begin the pre-filing process with FERC for an environmental review of the proposed $5 billion, 550-mile natural gas pipeline.

Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. has secured additional long-term binding shipper agreements on its Rover natural gas pipeline project to connect Marcellus and Utica shale supplies to markets in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Gulf Coast regions of the United States and Canada. As a result of the additional agreements, the pipeline is fully subscribed through 15- and 20-year fee-based contracts to transport 3.25 Bcf/d of capacity.

Excelerate Energy has executed an agreement with the Government of Equatorial Guinea and Ophir Energy plc for a floating liquefaction storage and offloading vessel (FLSO). The Fortuna FLNG will be located at Block R, Equatorial Guinea which is owned 80% by Ophir and 20% by the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea, GEPetrol.

Santos GLNG has fed natural gas into its 420-km transmission pipeline for the first time via its primary compressor station in the Fairview field in southwest Queensland, Australia.

The global LNG market, in which Gazprom intends to increase its liquefaction capacity by 250% to 25 million tons per year by 2018, will pose unfamiliar challenges to the company, according to an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

JBBR Pipeline LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of CenterPoint Properties, closed an open season on Nov. 21 after soliciting binding long-term volume commitments from customers for interstate common carrier transportation service on up to 90% of the capacity of a 20-inch, 4-mile crude oil pipeline system.

Magellan Midstream Partners completed an extended open season on Nov. 6 seeking commitments on the proposed Saddlehorn Pipeline to transport various grades of crude oil from the Niobrara Shale to the partnership’s storage facilities in Cushing, OK.

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. plans to construct a 16-inch, 226-mile pipeline from the Plains Basin pipeline system at Duncan, OK that will largely following an existing Plains right-of-way to Longview, TX. The pipeline is supported by long-term commitments and is expected to be completed by mid-2016.

Phillips 66 has formed a joint venture with Energy Transfer Partners LP to develop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline (ETCOP) projects.

Plains All American Pipeline and Enterprise Products Partners are constructing a condensate gathering system into their Three Rivers terminal and doubling the mainline capacity on the Eagle Ford Joint Venture Pipeline from Three Rivers to Corpus Christi, TX. These expansions are supported by a long-term production commitment and are expected to be placed into service in 2015.

Spectra Energy Partners has joined in development of the PennEast Pipeline. The proposed interstate natural gas pipeline will transport natural gas to meet growing energy demand in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Technip was awarded a subsea contract by Chevron Indonesia for the Bangka Development, located in Rapak PSC area, 70 km off the province of East Kalimantan. The contract covers engineering, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning and pre-commissioning of flexibles, umbilical, and subsea structures.

Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG has issued the first major Invitation to tender (ITT) for construction of the onshore section of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The scope for the onshore pipeline contracts includes the engineering, procurement and construction of 760-km, 38-inch cross-country onshore pipeline on Greece and Albania. Companies invited to tender are international pipeline construction organizations, including from TAP’s host countries.

TransCanada has filed a formal project application for the Energy East Pipeline Project with Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB). The detailed application for the 1.1- MMb/d pipeline comes after more than 18 months of environmental studies, engineering work and public consultation, making it one of the most extensive regulatory applications in TransCanada's history.

Statoil is waiting final testing before preparing for the installation and hook-up in the North Sea of the world’s first subsea wet gas compressor station to the Gullfaks C platform next year. The compressor station consists of two 5-MW wet gas compressors that will be installed in a subsea template at 135-meter depth. They will be tied in to existing templates and pipelines 15 km from the Gullfaks C platform.

FMC Technologies Measurement Solutions has released what it describes as its latest, most advanced technological tool in fluid measurement, the Smith Meter® Ultra 8c liquid ultrasonic flowmeter.

New products and services from Digi International, Taxography, Heath Consultants, ESAB, Vacuworx, Puradyn, Latham & Watkins, Fecon, Victaulic, Kepware, Quest Integrity Group and more.