September 2014, Vol. 241, No. 9

Advertisers from the print edition of <em>Pipeline & Gas Journal</em>, September 2014, Vol. 241, No. 9.

It’s unfortunate that ExxonMobil doesn’t like to talk. It would have quite a story to tell, not just about oil and gas development, but how the use of advanced technologies helps to keep energy prices affordable, creating tens of thousands of jobs, and most importantly helps to raise the standard of living for millions around the world.

It was 1964, and Ernest Hotze, a mechanical engineer who put himself through Oklahoma University working in oilfields, was trying to sell Tennessee Gas Pipeline some large compressors. Hotze worked for Clark Brothers, one of four big compressor manufacturers, and the business was very different from its modern incarnation.

Human Machine Interface (HMI) has evolved significantly from the days when operations staff had to sit in front of a single screen to monitor a machine or a process. HMI/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) applications now not only monitor and help control equipment and processes, but also provide a huge range of information regarding machine and plant operations.

Aggressive efforts are underway to reduce methane emissions from the natural gas sector and the industry is working on technologies and approaches for mitigating emissions. But it also must improve the way emissions are quantified. By establishing reasonable baselines, utilities will be able to provide more accurate reports about their emissions profiles and implement mitigation and reduction programs. GTI and its industry partners are working to update those baselines now.

The oil and gas industry has a problem. With Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, energy companies are facing a shortage of talent. In Mercer’s “Oil & Gas Talent Outlook and Workforce Practices Survey,” it was reported that many oil and gas companies plan to poach employees from competitors to solve this dilemma.

It’s no secret that last winter was one of the worst on record for the United States. The natural gas industry may have been hit the hardest, with prices rising due to the high level of demand that comes along with below zero temperatures and diminishing supply.

You often find in the energy business those destined to leave their mark in the industry share two important components: an entrepreneurial spirt and vision. Line pipe producer Ahmet Erciyas is one of them. He could foresee that with its strategic geographic location that literally connects Asia and Europe, his homeland of Turkey would also be one of the global epicenters for energy development and transmisson.

In recent weeks, ONEOK Partners has announced multimillion-dollar investment plans in both North Dakota and Oklahoma for natural gas gathering, processing and growth projects related to resource development.

With about 2,000 miles of cast iron mains to replace within its Peoples Gas distribution system, Integrys Energy Group would be facing a huge job, even in the friendliest of environments.

The ability to unlock domestic shale formations has been transformational for the United States. However, the ripple effects of this energy boom extend well beyond the North American continent.

A key aspect in understanding the troubles of Mexico's oil and gas sector is the federal government’s high budget dependence on the revenues of the National Oil Company (NOC) Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

An insidious and often invisible enemy is eating away at the bottom line of the oil and gas industry.

As part of a record-setting industry meeting in May at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in North Dakota, Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple offered a keynote speech with one superlative after another about his sparsely populated, but energy- and agriculture-rich state. It seems his state is leading the nation in a number of categories these days, including having the happiest residents.

<em>“The overriding lesson: great software can fail if it is not paired with industry expertise.” – Brett Vogt, Project Consulting Services, Inc. </em> Whether they are people, places or things, there is nothing that can escape electronic scrutiny in the 21st century, pipelines included. With the right planning, personnel and software systems, both industry and government representatives agree that the tools are in place to maintain control and complete records for the North American, if the not the world’s, oil and natural gas pipelines.

Picture today’s “typical” U.S. military serviceman. He’s in his early 20s. If he’s lucky, his mother and Uncle Sam have cooked for him his entire life, relieving him of the need to learn how. When left to his own devices, he gets by on a steady stream of delivery pizza and energy drinks. Not exactly the diet of champions. But he is a warrior and his body is young, strong and resilient. His daily boot-camp-inspired regimen of running, push-ups and pull-ups keeps him lean and fit.

Call it a revolution – an energy revolution! The new supplies of natural gas and crude oil that are coming from shale deposits have a greater meaning than just ample supply for an energy-hungry world. Its overall impact will change transportation and distribution infrastructures, it can change a country’s overall energy balance and in all likelihood, it will change the economics of oil and natural gas!

There is at least one raised eyebrow at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan, the subject of a proposed rule issued on June 2. The plan would force electric utilities to reduce carbon emissions to advance President Obama's Climate Action Plan, which seeks to lower air emissions of the six greenhouse gases, of which carbon dioxide is the major member. The plan foresees individual states devising separate, and perhaps different, plans for reducing carbon emissions from electric utilities.

ABS has been chosen to class the world’s first compressed natural gas (CNG) carrier ordered by Pelayaran Bahtera Adhiguna, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state-owned power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PT PLN).

Alamo Tube Company plans to build the country’s first, tubing specific OCTG pipe mill and finishing facility south of San Antonio to service growing U.S. oilfield tubing demand. The mill will be located in Alamo Junction Rail Park, a 400 acre development situated in Elmendorf.

Arrow Energy plans to develop a 580-km pipeline from north of Moranbah to Gladstone, Queensland, Australia. As proposed, the Arrow Bowen Pipeline will transport coal seam gas from the Bowen Basin to a gas hub 22-km west of Gladstone, where it will join the proposed Arrow Surat Pipeline.

The Department of Energy has conditionally authorized LNG Development Co., LLC (Oregon LNG) to export domestically produced LNG to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, from the Oregon LNG Terminal in Warrenton, OR.

Houston Enterprise Products Partners L.P. has executed an additional long-term contract to provide ethane storage, transportation, refrigeration and loading services from its new ethane export terminal that is currently under construction on the Houston Ship Channel. With this new agreement, Enterprise now has long-term commitments for 85% of the capacity of the ethane terminal.

Golden Pass Products, LLC has awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) services contract for its proposed natural gas liquefaction and export project in Sabine Pass, TX to Chiyoda Corporation. Also participating in the development of the FEED services will be Chiyoda’s partner CB&I.

KBR received a letter of award from Hyundai Heavy Industries to perform engineering design services for the Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company’s Al-Nasr full-field development project, located offshore Abu Dhabi.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners launched a binding open season to solicit commitments for the proposed Palmetto Project, which offers shippers a new refined products service to move gasoline, diesel and ethanol from Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina to points in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. announced that El Paso Natural Gas Company has entered into a 21-year firm transportation agreement with Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) to initially provide 163,000 Dth/d of firm transportation capacity by October, ramping up to 200,000 Dth/d by October 2017 and 550,000 Dth/d by October 2020.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa landowners want to see the details of a proposed oil pipeline that would carry crude oil from North Dakota across the state to Illinois. Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners has said the 1,100-mile Dakota Access pipeline would likely go through 17 Iowa counties as it crosses from the northwest corner of the state to the southeast corner. The oil's final destination would be in Patoka, Illinois, about 70 miles east of St. Louis. [inline:Energy TransferDAPL_AllStates_Counties_Page_1.jpg]

Nicor Gas received Illinois Commerce Commission approval on a tariff that will allow for the recovery of pipeline infrastructure investments across northern Illinois. This nine-year initiative, which begins in 2015, will allow Nicor Gas to replace hundreds of miles of aging distribution pipe and thousands of natural gas services, upgrade transmission and natural gas storage systems and replace and refurbish natural gas regulating stations.

Energy Transfer, through subsidiary ET Rover Pipeline LLC, conducted an open season which ran through July 25 to solicit additional binding Precedent Agreements for firm transportation service on a new interstate natural gas pipeline system designed to provide access for rapidly growing Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas production to growing markets.

Hoegh LNG announced the floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) Lampung project, off Indonesia, began commercial operation in mid-July for its client Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC announced that Republic Midstream, LLC, a newly formed portfolio company, executed agreements with Penn Virginia Corporation to construct and operate a crude oil gathering system, a central delivery terminal complex and an intermediate takeaway pipeline to serve Penn Virginia's prolific acreage position in the Eagle Ford Shale. The long-term, fee-based transportation agreements with Penn Virginia are supported by minimum volume commitments and a dedication of acreage covering the areas served by the gathering system.

Santos (40%) and operator GDF SUEZ (60%) announced the Bonaparte LNG project will consider options other than floating LNG technology to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate natural gas fields, located 250 km offshore west of Darwin, Australia. These options will include a pipeline connection to Darwin.

Statoil is moving forward with development of the Valemon field in the North Sea. In late July, 9,700-ton topsides were lifted into place on the steel jacket by the Saipem 7000 crane vessel.

Honeywell Process Solutions is upgrading the process control and alarm management systems at the Molikpaq platform on the Sakhalin Shelf.

The Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning of Turkey approved the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for South Stream Pipeline’s offshore section in Turkey.

Williams Partners L.P. and its wholly owned subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC announced a fully contracted expansion project designed to deliver 180,000 Dth/d of additional natural gas capacity for local distribution along the Eastern Seaboard.

Gas transportation companies have a wide variety of choices to make concerning pipeline inspections. Aerial technologies that include measurement of gas concentration and recording capabilities are gaining ground in this regard; one of the conventional systems is called aerial laser methane assessment, or ALMA for short, but how does it work?

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recently unveiled interactive online maps showing natural gas leaks beneath the streets of Boston, Indianapolis and New York City’s Staten Island. Leaks like these rarely pose an immediate safety threat, but the leaking natural gas – which is mostly methane – has a powerful effect on the global climate, carrying 120 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.

The oil and gas industry is changing as production demands of 21st century technology increases at an extraordinary pace. The industry faces challenges going forward, including remote monitoring of wellheads and storage tanks, 24-hour production demands and the high cost to manage remote sites in terms of time and resources.

An interesting name? You bet it is, and it merits some explanation. Fishbone Gasket is a recent innovation in the traditionally boring gasket market, and hopefully the ultimate solution for high-temperature and high-pressure sealing problems.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A spat has broken out between Poland and Russia over what Warsaw claims is a sharp drop in natural gas supplies. The move comes amid concerns Moscow is ready to use its energy exports as a political weapon over the crisis in Ukraine. Russian gas supplier Gazprom was elusive in its position: while it claimed its deliveries didn't drop, it warned that they depend on volumes available for export. It also argued that the problem is due to Poland ramping up its demand, something the Polish state gas company didn't want to confirm.

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