October 2014, Vol. 241, No. 10

Advertisers from the print edition of Pipeline & Gas Journal, October 2014, Vol. 241 No. 10.

$3.25. Remember that number. These days I avoid watching the evening news. ISIS, Ebola, Ukraine, Putin, Iraq, Gaza, Boko Haram, the Khorasan Group, Ferguson, etc. Some days I wish I could just stay in bed.

Natural force damage from earth movement and heavy rains or floods accounts for only 8% of all pipeline failure incidents. However, these type of incidents account for 34% of all property damage.

The most commonly used materials for gas flowlines are carbon steel (CS) and duplex stainless steel (DSS). Selection of flowline materials should take into account the service for which the flowline is intended, the operating envelope and the life cycle costs (LCC). For highly corrosive environments corrosion-resistant alloys (CRAs), in particular DSS, remains the most cost-effective option since the risk of corrosion failure on CS lines is high and use of corrosion inhibition with CS is often either impractical, costly or poses too high a risk.

World petroleum and other liquid fuels consumption will increase 38% by 2040, spurred by increased demand in the developing Asia and Middle East, according to projections in International Energy Outlook 2014 (IEO2014), released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Seen on a map, Europe’s gas pipeline network appears both complex and comprehensive. It would appear to reflect all conceivable supply needs. Yet, in reality, it is an aggregation of a protracted series of regional networks, devised at different times to serve localised needs.

The seemingly overnight transformation of the U.S. and North American oil and natural gas gusher into a global supply source has upended many of the long-held assumptions about the American energy industry. This is particularly true for natural gas storage, alternately viewed as an unnecessary anachronism or an indispensable tool for the United States to emerge as a new net energy exporter.

GE and Accenture last month announced the launch of the Intelligent Pipeline Solution, the first-ever Industrial Internet offering to help pipeline operators make better decisions concerning the condition of their critical machines and assets in the oil and gas pipeline industry.

The INGAA Foundation Inc. and ICF International are making available analytical data supporting the Foundation’s North American Midstream Infrastructure Through 2035: Capitalizing On Our Energy Abundance report, (see P&GJ May 2014, Pg. 30 for an excerpt from the report).

Many pipeline facilities including compressor stations, regulator stations and pump stations/tank farm terminals have thousands of feet of buried pipe that are not readily accessible for direct inspection. The presence of buried electrical grounding systems that may incorporate copper cables and rods or galvanized grounding elements pose challenges to achieving adequate corrosion control and the assessment of buried piping.

Mexico is poised for an energy renaissance. It has ample reserves of oil and natural gas, experience in energy production, promising economic fundamentals, and industrial expertise. In recent decades, Mexico has suffered from declining oil production, insufficient gas supply, and high electricity prices.

When global business consulting giant Accenture finished a recent treatise on shale oil and natural gas development, it identified eight key factors needed to make exploitation of shale viable, and the first three are found in abundance in successful U.S. shale plays from North Dakota’s Bakken to Texas’ Eagle Ford. They are geology, land considerations and the existence of an unconventional energy resource service sector.

In the high-risk environment of the oil and gas industry, an enormous amount of resources is employed and devoted to ensuring the environment, the assets we manage and our personnel are protected.

The economic benefits of the Texas oil and gas pipeline industry are resulting in substantial highly compensated employment, investment and economic growth for the state of Texas, according to a joint development study conducted by Texas Tech University and commissioned by the Texas Pipeline Association (TPA).

A research study from Flow Research, Volume X: The World Market for Flowmeters, 5th Edition, finds that the worldwide traditional technology flowmeter market totaled $2.7 billion in 2013 and is projected to grow to exceed $3.3 billion by 2018.

There’s no question why the University of Houston keeps a close eye on the energy business. “Energy is 50% of the economy in the greater Houston area,” said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer for the school.

FERC "pipeline" Commissioner Phillip Moeller held a workshop Sept. 18 to explore the possibility of the commission, on its own or through a third party, establishing an online trading platform for the nomination and confirmation of pipeline deliveries of natural gas. The proposal was made at a technical conference in April by Don Sipe, a Maine attorney, on behalf of the American Forest and Paper Association.

State-run Argentine oil company YPF SA has reportedly reached a deal with Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) to develop deposits of shale oil and gas in the Vaca Muerta formation in Patagonia.

Bechtel has hydro-tested two additional LNG storage tanks built on Curtis Island in Queensland, Australia.

The EnLink Midstream companies, EnLink Midstream Partners, LP ( (the Partnership) and EnLink Midstream, LLC (the General Partner), plan to construct a 45-mile, 8 inch condensate pipeline and six natural gas compression and condensate stabilization facilities that will service major producer customers in the Utica Shale, including Eclipse Resources.

Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas selected Dominion to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 550-mile interstate natural gas pipeline from West Virginia, through Virginia and into eastern North Carolina. This would be North Carolina's second major interstate natural gas pipeline.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. held a binding open season that closed Oct. 17 to determine shipper demand for capacity on a proposed pipeline that would originate in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and also serve the Powder River and Denver-Julesburg Basins. The 30-inch pipeline would extend 1,200 miles to the Cushing hub in Oklahoma and is designed to have an initial capacity of 340,000 bpd of crude oil, expandable to over 700,000 bpd.

For the first time in its history the Gate terminal, located on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, simultaneously reloaded the Wilgas and Coral Methane LNG carriers with LNG.

The Flanagan South and Seaway Twin Pipeline startups will soon begin transporting incremental volumes of heavy sour and light sweet crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries, putting downward pressure on U.S. crude prices and displacing imports, said an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Gazprom Marketing & Trading’s newly delivered LNG carrier Pskov received bunkers (heavy fuel oil and marine gas oil) at the port of Nakhodka in the Primorskiy Region of Russia. This marks the first time a GM&T time-chartered LNG vessel has bunkered in a Russian port. Bunkers were provided by GazpromNeft Marine Bunker.

Regency Energy Partners LP and American Energy – Midstream, LLC have a joint venture agreement for construction and operation of Regency’s Utica Ohio River Project. RGP and American Energy – Utica, LLC will also enter into a gathering agreement for gas produced from the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio by AEU.

EQT Corp. and NextEra US Gas Assets, LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. formed a joint venture, Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, to construct and own Mountain Valley Pipeline. The joint venture launched a binding open season for the pipeline.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. launched a binding open season Sept. 5 to solicit commitments for the Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access (UTOPIA) project, which will transport ethane and ethane-propane mixtures from the Utica shale area.

A recent U.S. Energy Information Administration report indices that China relies heavily on domestic coal (and to a lesser extent oil) to meet rising energy consumption. To reduce air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, the Chinese government is attempting to replace some of the country's coal and oil use with natural gas.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. has filed the necessary regulatory applications to the Alberta Energy Regulator for its Fox Creek, Alberta to Namao Junction, Alberta segment of its $2 billion Phase III pipeline expansion.

PennEast Pipeline Co. plans to construct a 100-mile pipeline to bring lower cost natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale to homes and businesses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. PennEast is a joint project of AGL Resources, NJR Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, South Jersey Industries and UGI Energy Services (UGIES), a subsidiary of UGI Corp.

Russia’s Rosneft has acquired land drilling and workover assets of Weatherford in Russia and Venezuela. Rosneft acquires eight companies (part of the Weatherford group) involved in drilling operations in Russia and Venezuela.

Anticipating bidirectional flows on the Rockies Express Pipeline LLC system, natural gas transportation companies have launched new efforts to deliver incremental pipeline capacity to the Chicago market.

Tenaska NG Fuels, LLC and Waller Marine, Inc. have announced an agreement to develop, construct, own and operate a natural gas liquefaction and fueling facility along the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Mississippi River corridor with access to the Gulf of Mexico.

TexStar Midstream Logistics Pipeline, LP launched a 30-day open season for commitments for service on the TexStar East Texas Pipeline which will transport Eaglebine crude and condensate from Madison, Walker, Grimes and Montgomery counties in Texas to the Houston Ship Channel.

Williams held an open season Sept. 3-29 for the Western Marcellus Pipeline Project, an expansion of the Transco interstate pipeline to provide incremental firm natural gas transportation capacity to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast by 2018.

This year CEESIowa is celebrating its 15th year in operation. Since its first flow in March 1999, CEESIowa has provided high-quality, independent third-party natural gas flow calibrations to the energy industry.

Several public utility commissions in the United States have approved programs allowing local gas distribution companies to recover the cost of replacing and repairing pipeline infrastructure. Now the rush is on to design and construct the resulting main replacement (MR) programs.

Pennsylvania technology company Quantum Vortex (QVI) has completed construction of its first 100-bpd crude oil upgrader, powered by QVI Hammer Technology™.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and others on Thursday appealed a proposed $1.4 billion penalty against PG&E in a deadly 2010 gas-pipeline explosion, in a case that has raised repeated accusations of cozy relations between the utility and state regulators.

New products and services from AMETEK, Unique Seaflex, Fotech, Schonstedt, OleumTech, Practical Instrument Electronics and more.