January 2020, Vol. 247, No. 1

With the largest oil producing province in Canada, Alberta, announcing it would cap output for January at 3.81 MMbpd – the same level as in December – operators continue to scramble for additional capacity.

If North America was one giant oil and natural gas basin with one spigot, the flow handle would probably be set at only half-open in 2020, a year when global events will determine if, and which direction, the handle moves.

For those who thought producer retrenchment in U.S. shale basins, global trade wars or middling commodity prices would stop pipeline expansion dead in its tracks: Move along, folks. There’s nothing to see here.

Beijing’s leaders are increasingly concerned about China’s heavy dependence upon energy suppliers who worry, with a special concern centered on Russia and others in Africa and the Mideast.

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) officials are apparently still interested in developing a voluntary information sharing (VIS) safety reporting program.

Nearly 98% of barrel miles in the United States are governed by pipeline safety management systems, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API). That, combined with greater public awareness, means that pipeline integrity and safety are under a greater degree of scrutiny than ever before.

The 1,865-mile (3,000-km) Power of Siberia $9 billion gas pipeline is set to become the longest transmission pipeline, east of the Ural Mountains, with its first delivery in mid-December. It will transmit 61 Bcm of natural gas a year from Irkutsk and Yakutia to Russia’s Far East, bringing vital energy for the economic development of the Russian side of the Amur River and onward.

As U.S. crude oil export volumes increased to an average of 2.8 MMbpd in the first seven months of 2019, the number of destinations – including countries, territories, autonomous regions, and other administrative regions – that receive U.S. exports has also increased.

The industry expects that all operators take a robust approach to integrity management, resulting in safe and reliable pipelines. One of the many known threats to pipeline integrity that must be explicitly addressed is Selective Seam Weld Corrosion (SSWC). This article explores ways of reliably assessing pipelines for the threat of SSWC and actively managing SSWC when it is an active threat.

The domestic pipeline industry has the capabilities to produce steel to the very highest standards of strength and integrity and has demonstrated this on many occasions over the years. However, whether it has enough capacity to meet all its current and future quality steel needs to produce high integrity pipelines is debatable.

There are millions and millions of feet of vintage pipelines in use throughout the United States with an exterior coating that contains asbestos. There is probably an equal amount of footage existing in out-of-use, idled or abandoned pipelines.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be one of the most transformative technologies for business in the next 10 years. Early demonstrations of the power of AI in speech recognition and autonomous driving should remove those doubts.

U.S. exports of LNG set two consecutive records in October and November 2019, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates. LNG exports averaged 5.8 Bcf/d with 52 exported cargoes in October and 6.3 Bcf/d with 55 exported cargoes in November, EIA reported, citing Bloomberg Finance shipping data.

A final investment decision on a $3.15 billion LNG project near Mozambique’s capital will be taken around the middle of 2020, France’s Total and its partners in the project said after signing an agreement to develop the project.

EPIC Midstream loaded its first oil tanker at its new Texas export terminal and plans to open another dock in the third quarter of 2020, benefiting from rising demand for low-sulfur U.S. crude, EPIC President Brian Freed said in a mid-December interview with Reuters.

Authorities arrested 21 demonstrators who are opposed to a planned liquefied natural gas pipeline and a marine export terminal in Oregon.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed into law a bipartisan proposal making it a felony to trespass or damage oil or gas pipelines in the state, despite saying he had some problems with the bill.

New U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette slammed New York state regulators for blocking pipelines that would bring natural gas from Appalachia to New England but did not specify whether the Trump administration could do anything to push the projects forward.

U.S. energy regulators approved Tellurian Inc’s request to start site preparation work at its proposed $27.5 billion Driftwood liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project in Louisiana.

Europe’s first new gas interconnector in a decade, linking Finland and Estonia across the Baltic Sea, will weaken Gazprom’s hold on the region and spark price competition, the pipeline’s owners said.

Ukrainian pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta said it has agreed to a 10-year oil transit extension with Russia’s Transneft.

Democrats in the House are about to pass a new pipeline safety bill that is unlikely to attract any Republican support. The Pipeline Safety Act (H.R. 5120), which passed by two House committees in November with no GOP votes in favor, also clashes with the bi-partisan bill passed last summer by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

T.D. Williamson (TDW) released a standard offering for isolation fittings that fully complies with the new EN-13480 code, the European standard that replaces national codes in many countries.

Most construction accidents happen during pipe handling, when workers are loading and unloading large, heavy pipe or when additional construction equipment is brought in to move big and unwieldy pipe with workers in close proximity.

A recent IRS private ruling allows a real estate investment trust or “REIT” to own and operate traditional midstream infrastructure assets, including storage assets and pipelines, and derive REIT qualifying income from traditional commercial arrangements with customers. If structured correctly, the REIT’s income from these assets and arrangements is treated as “rents from real property,” an important aspect of qualifying for REIT status under the Internal Revenue Code (IRS).

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Bulgaria of deliberately delaying the implementation of Russia’s TurkStream natural gas pipeline on its territory and said that Moscow could find ways to bypass Bulgaria if needed.

The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) approved a route for Duke Energy’s Central Corridor natural gas pipeline.

Iran is building a $1.8 billion oil pipeline to its port of Jask outside the mouth of the Gulf, the country’s oil minister said, as part of plans to protect its exports against potential problems in the region and to boost shipments of Caspian oil.

Niger began construction on a $7 billion oil pipeline that will reach the coast through West African neighbor Benin. The 1,232-mile (1,982-km) pipeline is Niger’s most important project since gaining independence.

In one of the first actions of the new International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the U.S. government investment organization is pledging more that $600 million to the Rassini natural gas pipeline to be built across southern Mexico.

Germany’s parliament approved changes to the law governing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to make it compliant with European Union regulations, removing a hurdle to completion of the Russia-led project.

U.S. oil export terminal operator Moda Midstream said it has begun to enhance its Moda Ingleside Energy Center (MIEC) in Ingleside, Texas, to allow the docking of larger-sized vessels and is considering a new pipeline as well.

Italy’s Saipem was awarded a contract in Equatorial Guinea worth $90-$100 million to build a 43 mile (70 km) subsea pipeline linking the Alen platform with the Punta Europa petrochemical hub, the oil ministry said.

Tallgrass Energy, through its affiliate Tallgrass Pony Express Pipeline, announced a binding open season soliciting shipper commitments for crude oil transportation from Pony Express’ Sterling origin to destinations in Cushing, Okla., in exchange for volume incentive tariff rates. The open season will run to Jan. 29.

Winn & Coales’ Denso North America subsidiary held a grand opening in Texas for a new location that provides expanded manufacturing capability along with greater warehouse capacity, enhanced R&D and testing capabilities and enlarged training space.