August 2020, Vol. 247, No. 8

In what could only be viewed as a significant blow to the wind-power industry in Mexico, that nation’s president, Andrés Manuel López-Obrador, said he would end his support for further projects, including the installation of grid connectors.

The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically affected oil and gas production and demand, leaving no midstream markets untouched as drilling screeched to a halt, pipeline projects were sidelined and global storage neared capacity in a stark reversal of trends at the start of 2020.

Pipeline projects, and the larger energy industry as a whole in Mexico, are facing swathes of political challenges on both sides of the border.

Over the next decade, Germany plans to create the longest hydrogen transmission pipeline network in the world and it will be an integral part of the country’s “green stimulus” program to restart the economy after the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

Canada is the largest source of U.S. energy imports and the second-largest destination for U.S. energy exports behind only Mexico. Energy is an important component of trade between Canada and the United States.

The litany of ambitious and expensive energy sector projects in Nigeria that are way behind schedule, or have yet to go through preliminary development phases, is long. The 81-mile (130-km), 48-inch (1,200-mm) Obiafu-Obri Kom-Oben (OB3) gas supply pipeline is the latest example.

Amid the state-led push for Alaska’s LNG project, the loudest challenges to the project’s environmental impact statement (EIS) within Alaska came from the city of Valdez and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, both of which promoted sites within their own municipality as preferable to building the LNG terminal in Nikiski.

With so many companies involved in natural gas distribution (P&GJ reports on more than 300 such companies, ranging in size from 6 million to a few hundred customers in the Annual 500 Report in November), this summary of ongoing infrastructure replacement projects is not an all-inclusive overview of activity.

In this article, approaches to support cultural change among pipeline operators are addressed, as are approaches that might be implemented in the pipeline control room.

The use of pipe-in-pipe systems for the thermal insulation of pipelines is well established. Since 2004, Tata Steel has been delivering systems for pipe-in-pipe projects in the North Sea, including BP Rhum and Talisman Tweedsmuir.

Energy Transfer has vowed to fight a court order to shut down and empty the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), contending that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg overstepped his authority with the ruling.

The developers of the long-delayed, 600-mile (965-km) Atlantic Coast Pipeline canceled the multistate natural gas project, citing recurring litigation, permitting uncertainties and mounting costs.

The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) use of Nationwide Permit 12 but refused to let TC Energy resume construction of its Keystone XL pipeline under the fast-track permit.

A federal court tossed out a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) policy that the commission has used to extend rehearing periods so it could spend more time examining typically landowner or environmental groups’ complaints about FERC approvals of new construction applications.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is in the process of seeking comments on a number of pipeline regulatory reform proposals, one focusing on hazardous liquid pipelines, the other on distribution pipelines.

China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP) was hired by PetroChina Southwest Pipeline Company to complete the work on the China-Myanmar Oil and Gas Pipeline, a pressurized 40-inch by 80-grade gas pipeline, using mechanized FCAW in-service welding technology.

Rangeland Midstream Canada said its Marten Hills Pipeline System entered service. The system consists of new crude oil and condensate pipelines located in the Marten Hills region of north central Alberta.

U.S. energy regulators granted Delfin LNG a second one-year extension until September 2021, to complete its proposed floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) export facility off the coast of Louisiana.

Essential Utilities announced the appointment of Kim Edvardsson as vice president of Finance for Peoples, its Pittsburgh, Penn.-based natural gas division.