July 2015, Vol. 242, No. 7

Advertisers from the print edition of Pipeline & Gas Journal, July 2015,vol. 242, no 7.

June 9-11, Benposium 2015, Omni Houston Hotel, Houston, TX. Phone: (800) 752-8878: Outside US & Canada (212) 904-3070; Email: registration@platts.com; Web: www.benposium.com.

The U.S. shale revolution has created jobs, improved the balance of trade, spurred billions of dollars of foreign and domestic investment, reduced carbon emissions and lowered oil and gas prices. From the shale gas fields in Williamsport to the refineries around Philadelphia, new energy technologies have had a profound local impact. This revolution could do even more if the U.S. allowed crude oil exports and expanded its pipeline system.

In the wake of Energy Transfer Enterprises’ (ETE) thus far unsuccessful takeover bid of Williams Cos., some in the industry are predicting more of the same type of activity as cheap energy spurs stronger companies to look for less sound rivals to gobble up.

Operating pipelines at high pressure and low temperature can lead to natural gas hydrate formation, even with modest water content. Hydrate formation is also a growing concern as flow measurement equipment and operators become more accustomed to handling wet gas flow. Hydrate particles can attach to pipe walls, instruments, and other structures within the pipeline, which can then lead to gas measurement errors or instrument failure due to solid particle attachment or high-velocity impacts.

<strong>Company, Association News </strong> Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Steve Redding Sr., director of the company’s leak management program, received the 2015 Milton W. Heath Sr. Memorial Award at the American Gas Association’s annual Operations Conference and Biennial Exhibition in Grapevine, TX. The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions toward the detection, prevention and repair of natural gas leaks.

While U.S. crude oil production increased by nearly 3.2 MMbpd from 2010 to 2014, production in the West Coast region decreased by 100,000 bpd, continuing a long-term decline, EIA data showed. With no major crude oil pipelines connecting the West Coast to other parts of the country, refineries on the West Coast adjusted by increasing imports of foreign crude oil, reaching an average of 1.1 MMbpd over the past five years.

Integrity assessment has always been a part of operations and maintenance activities. As plant piping and pipeline infrastructure has aged, industry first developed basic tools, and as their importance became apparent, these tools improved to meet those increasing needs.

Although we are already 15 years deep into the 21st century and women working at the top rungs of professional life no longer turn heads, when it comes to the “hard” numbers-crunching parts in the global economy – science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) – women still get asked why they selected this way to earn a buck. This same question is occasionally put to Paula Gant, holder of a doctorate degree in economics and the deputy assistant secretary for oil and natural gas in the federal Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy.

Oil and gas companies are using information technologies and resources now accessible on desktops for planning new pipeline routes. Technologies and resources include geographic information systems (GIS), mobile information technology, satellite imagery, topographic maps, environmental data and tax data.

The latest Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015) prepared by the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) presents long-term annual projections of energy supply, demand and prices through 2040. This analysis focuses on six scenarios: a reference case, low and high economic growth cases, low and high oil price cases, and the high oil and gas resource case.

Energy Transfer Partners has entered into long-term gas gathering, processing, and fractionation agreements with EdgeMarc Energy. To facilitate these agreements, ETP has purchased 20 miles of high-pressure pipeline from EdgeMarc and will build a new cryogenic gas processing plant, a new fractionator and additional gas gathering pipelines.

Service companies of every sort are scattered throughout the oil, gas and utilities industries. Mosaic is a Washington state-based business that moves its offerings one step further: by using its industry experience and analytical insight to develop strategy and consulting, training and technology services that are specifically designed for each customer.

With reserves of 1,093 Tcf, Canada is the world’s fifth-largest producer of dry natural gas, ranking behind the United States, Russia, Iran and Qatar. About two-thirds of Canada’s 156 Bcm of gas output comes from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) that straddles the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and the plains of the Yukon, southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and Alberta.

With Congress riled about PHMSA's slow implementation of the last pipeline safety law, the Obama administration has nominated a new administrator for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration who lacks pipeline and hazardous materials experience. Nor has she ever been a regulator. Marie Therese Dominguez began in the Clinton White House and worked her way through administrative positions in the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Postal Service and the Army, where she spent the last two years as deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

Recent high-profile pipeline incidents have increased awareness of integrity threats associated with legacy seam-welded pipe. Additionally, expectations from the public, regulators and pipeline operators to effectively manage these threats have increased. Pipeline operators use guidance published in PHMSA’s TT05 – Low Frequency ERW and Lap Welded Longitudinal Seam Evaluation– to model the effect of pressure cycle-induced fatigue on the growth of crack flaws to determine the optimum integrity re-assessment date prior to their growth to a critical level.

Oil and natural gas are two fossil fuels that account for a great deal of the energy used in the world. What they have in common is that they are found deep in the earth, sometimes underneath the ocean bed, and they have to be extracted through the drilling process. The fluids that come out of these wells generally include a mixture of gas, water, and oil. In addition, they may contain sand and sediment. These components eventually have to be separated and measured before they can be usefully processed.

Oil is not the only energy source that is seeing a glut. Growing supplies of natural gas could soon result in a similar phenomenon. It was only a year and a half ago that the United States, and the northeast in particular, saw supplies dwindle to exceptionally low levels, forcing prices to temporarily spike. The Northeast experienced a freezing winter, leading to high levels of consumption as millions of people tried to keep warm. Natural gas storage levels plummeted to lows not seen in years.

In the face of some of the worst threats in cybersecurity history, industrial control system cybersecurity continues to mature and evolve. While the disclosure of major vulnerabilities and new threats against industrial sectors paint a bleak picture, there have also been major advancements in awareness.

<em>Editor’s note: This second of a three-part series on the first-ever presidential Quadrennial Energy Review 2015 focuses on the safety and vulnerabilities of transportation, storage and distribution (TS&D) infrastructure and methane emissions</em>. Natural disasters pose a significant safety risk to the nation’s TS&D infrastructure. In 2012, there were 11 weather disasters in the United States costing $1 billion, second only to 2011 for the most on record. Insurance data in the QER reports $22 billion in total losses from weather events in 2013, excluding self-insured losses.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Texas company whose ruptured pipeline created the largest coastal oil spill in California in 25 years had assured the government that a break in the line while possible was "extremely unlikely" and state-of-the-art monitoring could quickly detect possible leaks and alert operators, documents show. Nearly 1,200 pages of records, filed with state regulators by Plains All American Pipeline, detail a range of defenses the company established to guard against crude oil spills and, at the same time, prepare for the worst should a spill occur.

Price Gregory President Michael Langston recently announced his retirement after a 35-year career in the pipeline construction sector. Langston joined H.C. Price in 1981. Following a merger between H.C. Price and Gregory & Cook Construction, Price Gregory was formed. Price Gregory was later purchased by Quanta Services and Langston was named president of the company.

For every opportunity in the natural gas business there is an equal challenge, and conversely, every challenge can be turned into an opportunity. That’s the nature of the gas business today, but as any industry observer will tell you, that’s been the nature of the beast for the last 15 years.

For process monitoring applications, the wireless revolution has come of age. Particularly in the upstream sector, oil and gas operations have fully realized the value proposition advertised by manufacturers. Wireless transmitters are now very commonly applied to measurements of level, pressure and temperature at compressors, gathering lines, separators, rod pumps and well-head “trees.” Wireless instruments have proved to be cost-effective, reliable, safe, secure, simple and environmentally friendly.

Development of a clear climate framework and a global emissions target is essential if $48-53 trillion for a new sustainable energy infrastructure is to be delivered, according to a new report from the World Energy Council. The findings are discussed in the fifth edition of the energy leaders’ dialogue series, the World Energy Trilemma Report, ‘Priority actions on climate change and how to balance the energy trilemma,’ released by the World Energy Council and project partner Oliver Wyman, along with the Global Risk Centre of its parent Marsh & McLennan Companies.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency on June 4 released a much-anticipated study of whether hydraulic fracturing contaminates drinking water supplies, concluding that while there have been some cases of contamination, the issue is not widespread.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An unusual coalition of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, labor and business leaders, veterans groups and Canada's ambassador to the United States joined forces Tuesday to push for quick approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The Obama administration announced a plan to cut methane emissions from pipeline operations but gave no specifics beyond the federal agencies which would handle rule-makings. The technical details of those rule-makings and the extent of the cut of methane emissions they seek to produce won't be known for some time.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — With yet another obstacle removed for the Keystone XL pipeline, opponents were pressing forward with a lawsuit to challenge the project, public protests and an effort to inject the issue into the November elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A report issued by the State Department Friday raised no major environmental objections to the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. The 1,179-mile pipeline would travel through Montana and South Dakota to a hub in Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries in Texas.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P.’s $1.5 billion, 270-mile Acadian Haynesville Extension began service Nov. 1. With the completion of the project, producers in Louisiana’s Haynesville/Bossier shale play will have access to 1.8 Bcf/d of incremental takeaway capacity.

TULSA, OK – Alpha Crude Connector has has begun construction of its 400-mile Alpha Crude Connector Pipeline. The crude oil transportation pipeline serves Lea and Eddy counties in New Mexico and Culberson, Loving, Reeves and Winkler counties in Texas. The system will have more than 100,000 bpd capacity from more than 250 lease tank batteries, other local pipeline systems, and truck terminals in the Northern Delaware Basin. Shippers will have access to several downstream pipelines and a rail terminal, providing markets at local refineries, Cushing and the U.S. Gulf Coast.

A small British oil company has found a bonanza of potentially billions of barrels of oil beneath a field near London’s Gatwick Airport. The only problem is how much of the oil is accessible. UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG) said April 9 that 3,000 feet of exploratory drilling at Wytch Farm in the Weald Basin, a rural area just north of the airport, discovered a “world-class potential resource.” The area is now referred to as “Britain’s Dallas.” It was the deepest well dug in the region in three decades.

BP Exploration & Production awarded Technip a lump sum project for the design, engineering, fabrication, installation and pre-commissioning of the new production pipeline systems on the south side of the Thunder Horse production drilling quarters unit. At a water depth of 1,900 meters, the field development is located in Mississippi Canyon Blocks 778 and 822, in the ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico environment.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline reported that TAP and its existing shareholders EGL, Statoil and E.ON Ruhrgas have reached an agreement with members of the Shah Deniz Consortium to secure funding for the project.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Dominion Resources has filed lawsuits against 27 Virginia landowners it says haven't allowed surveyors to access their property for a proposed natural gas pipeline. Dominion announced Wednesday the lawsuits are the first of what could be more than 100 separate complaints filed against landowners Dominion says are legally obligated to allow surveyors to enter their properties, which are along the Atlantic Coast Pipeline's proposed route.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. has executed long-term agreements that support development of a 416-mile, 24-inch pipeline to transport crude oil and condensate from the company’s Midland, TX terminal to its Sealy storage facility west of Houston. From Sealy, the new pipeline would link to Enterprise’s ECHO terminal through an interconnect with the Rancho II pipeline, which is scheduled to be in service shortly. Through ECHO, customers will have direct access to every refinery in Houston, Texas City, Beaumont and Port Arthur as well as Enterprise’s dock facilities.

ExxonMobil has resumed drilling at Point Thomson on Alaska’s North Slope as construction continues toward bringing the initial production system online. “The Point Thomson field is a vital part of unlocking Alaska’s North Slope gas resources,” said Jim Flood, ExxonMobil Development Company’s Arctic vice president. “The initial production will give us invaluable insight into the potential development of the reservoir and help provide Alaskans with economic benefits.”

TransCanada has received the first two permits from the British Columbia Oil & Gas Commission (OGC), approving construction for two sections of the 560-mile Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) project in northern British Columbia. The approvals are for sections that extend from 12.4 miles NW of Hudson's Hope to 30 miles north of Fort St. James and total about 155 miles.

Energy giants Gazprom and Shell, along with E.ON and OMV, signed a memorandum Thursday to construct a third technical line for a LNG plant on Sakhalin Island on Russia’s Pacific Coast. Under the agreement, the companies would build a new route under the Baltic Sea from Russia with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters a year. No timeline on the project was announced.

Genesis Energy, L.P. has entered into definitive agreements to acquire from Marathon Oil Company interests in several Gulf of Mexico crude oil pipeline systems, including its 28% interest in Poseidon Oil Pipeline Company, L.L.C., its 29% interest in Odyssey Pipeline L.L.C., and its 23% interest in the Eugene Island Pipeline System.

Magellan Midstream Partnersand LBC Tank Terminals, LLC ("LBC") announced they formed a 50/50 limited liability company. Seabrook Logistics, to own and operate crude oil storage and pipeline infrastructure in the Houston Gulf Coast area. The assets will include more than 700,000 bbls of new crude oil storage and other distribution infrastructure located adjacent to LBC’s existing terminal in Seabrook. In addition, the JV will build an 18-inch pipeline, which will connect the new storage to an existing third-party pipeline that will transport crude oil to a Houston-area refinery.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's state-run oil company and U.S.-based First Reserve are announcing a $1 billion deal to invest in the energy sector. Petroleos Mexicanos says in a statement that the agreement covers potential projects including infrastructure, sea transport, cogeneration and processing. First Reserve is a global private equity and energy infrastructure investment firm headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. It said in a statement Tuesday that the two companies will invest in infrastructure projects throughout Mexico.

Kinder Morgan announced its subsidiary, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (TGP), has finalized its anchor shippers for the market path component of the proposed Northeast Energy Direct Project (NED) following the formal close of the anchor shipper period in February. Collectively, the anchor shippers have executed agreements to transport approximately 500,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of incremental natural gas supplies sourced from the prolific Marcellus Shale region to meet New England’s growing consumer and industrial gas needs, as well as helping to bolster electric reliability.

VIENNA (AP) — OPEC decided to keep its oil output target on hold Friday and predicted prices would remain low for the foreseeable future — good news for both for oil-hungry international industries and consumers at the gas pump. The cartel said its output level would remain at 30 million barrels a day despite the fact that prices were still low compared with a year ago. It left it to member states to restrain any overproduction, an acknowledgment of the cartel's inability to enforce its own limits as it struggles to control world supply and prices.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission unanimous backed a Hess Corp. crude oil pipeline that will run under Lake Sakakawea. The $105 million project will convert an 8-inch pipeline to transfer Bakken crude oil along a 2.4 mile section of pipe buried 6 feet under the lake bottom in 1992.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania has begun transporting natural gas to Moldova, as the former Soviet republic moves toward the European Union and becomes less dependent on Russia. "It is the first time that gas goes from West to East," said Moldova Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman during a visit to Bucharest. Moldova gets most of its gas from Russia but wants to import more from Romania. The joint pipeline began pumping a small amount of Romanian gas Wednesday. Gherman says the government installed last month, which is backed by communists, is committed to joining the EU.

ShawCor's Bredero Shaw pipe-coating division has been notified the work suspension on its contract with Europipe for the concrete weight coating of Line 1 of the South Stream Pipeline has been lifted. In December 2014, ShawCor announced suspension of the majority of work on its $100 million pipeline contracts with Europipe and with Marubeni Sumitomo Consortium and with Saipem SpA, a contract valued at about $30 million.

Southcross Energy Partners announced the launch of a binding open season to solicit commitments for its proposed Y-Grade pipeline. Once complete, the pipeline will allow Southcross to offer transportation services of Y-Grade from a point near Woodsboro, TX to a point near Robstown. The pipeline will have access to the Y-Grade pipeline of Southcross’ holding company that runs from Pettus to Robstown.

Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East projects are expected to add up to $4.2 billion to Pennsylvania’s economy and create 300-400 permanent jobs, according to a study by Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions, Inc. released Feb. 5. Commissioned by Sunoco Logistics, the economic forecast projected construction of the projects will generate $23 million in personal income tax in the state, as well bringing in $62 million in tax revenues from vendors, employees and related activities.

Sunoco Logistics Partners announced June 4 plans to build an additional pipeline to deliver Marcellus Shale products to Marcus Hook, reflecting a growing market for liquid fuels derived from the region's shale drilling. <em>The Philadelphia Inquirer reported</em> Sunoco Logistics said it intends to build two pipelines simultaneously as part of its Mariner East 2 project. The project, announced in November, is the second phase of a plan to move materials including propane, butane, and ethane from Appalachian shale-gas fields to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex southwest of Philadelphia.

Tall Oak Midstream, LLC is constructing an oil gathering, storage and transportation system to serve producers in Oklahoma’s Sooner Trend (STACK) play. Tall Oak is already gathering and processing natural gas on its STACK system for multiple customers. Anchored by a long-term agreement with Felix Energy, LLC, the system will connect to multiple downstream pipelines that provide direct access to the market center at Cushing, OK. Tall Oak expects to bring the system into service later this year.

El Paso Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Tennessee Gas Pipeline, has placed its 300 Line Project in service, marking the completion of one of the largest natural gas infrastructure projects currently under way in the Northeast United States.

TransCanada postponed the building of its Energy East pipeline project and decided against building a marine and associated tank terminal in Cacouna, Québec. The company said alternative terminal options are under review, and that Québec and New Brunswick refineries would continue to be connected directly to Energy East.

TransCanada made a positive final investment decisionfrom LNG for the proposed Pacific NorthWest (PNW) LNG liquefaction and export facility in the Port Edward district of British Colombia. “This development is a significant step forward,” said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer. The move advances the company’s $46 billion capital growth plan, which includes more than $13 billion in proposed natural gas pipeline projects in support of the emerging LNG industry on the B.C. coast.

TULSA, Okla. – Transco has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its Dalton Expansion Project, which would support providing Marcellus shale gas to the Southeast for electricity generation and local natural gas distribution.

Wood Group Kenny will support the Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC) in pipeline engineering and flow assurance engineering studies for the Kamansu East (KME) field offshore Sabah, Malaysia. The work will include concept select studies and definition engineering on subsea heating options, thus preventing hydrates, for the 30 km gas pipeline that runs from the KME field in 750 meters of water to the company's new shelf edge Kebabangan platform. The pipeline heating technology could be the first application for deepwater gas development in Malaysia.

Wood Group has secured a $1 million contract with Origin Energy to provide detailed design engineering for the onshore pipelines related to the Halladale, Black Watch & Speculant (HBWS) Natural Gas Project in South West Victoria, Australia. The HBWS gas fields are located in the offshore Otway Basin in Victoria but due to their proximity to shore, and to avoid sensitive marine environments, they are being drilled using extended reach drilling (ERD) techniques from onshore location and tied back to the existing Otway Gas Plant.

There is a lot to talk about these days at Lyall. The company that has been supplying gas piping products to natural gas utilities across the United States for the past 45 years continues to expand, bringing its manufacturing expertise to new markets within the oil and gas industry.

Power and automation technology giant ABB last month opened a new factory in northwest Houston that will build fully integrated analyzer shelters for downstream oil and gas industry customers. The new 40,000-square-foot Analytical Systems Integration Facility will manufacture integrated shelters containing analyzer systems that are designed to help oil refineries and petrochemical plants maximize product quality. The new facility is one of ABB’s many recent investments in the U.S. Gulf Region.

Founded in 2000, Step-Ko Products, LLC is a global provider of corrosion protective products, with sales in over 42 countries. The Broussard, LA-company promotes flange protection products, pipeline corrosion protection, insulated enclosures, and pipeline markers for industrial and oil and gas applications. Step-Ko Products was certified in the Small & Emerging Business Development Program in 2012 and has worked with LSBDC at UL Lafayette in receiving assistance with website development and industry specific software training.

CRC-Evans Automatic Welding is introducing a new generation welding system incorporating laser vision welding and inspection technology. The company says its Vision System is engineered to reduce total time of the pipeline welding process while increasing weld quality. It is said to provide remarkable flexibility in the field.

In the six years we have published Q&A, we have interviewed utility and service company presidents, engineers, regulators, lawyers, consultants, specialists of every sort. But none of them was ever more important than Kenneth Frederick (Fred) Wrenn, Jr., a former executive with Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.

Corrosion of underground natural gas and liquid petroleum pipelines occurs in a variety of forms and requires specialized mitigation methods to detect and control. First identified in the 1960s, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a form of corrosion that results in clusters or colonies of cracks on the external surface of the affected pipeline.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Obama administration moved Wednesday to significantly expand a requirement for utilities to install inexpensive safety valves on gas lines across the nation following deadly fires and explosions going back decades that officials and safety advocates said could have been avoided. The Transportation Department proposal would cover new or replaced natural gas lines serving multi-family dwellings, small businesses and homes not already covered under a 2009 mandate.

<em>(Editor’s note: This update, provided by the Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor’s office, is part of an ongoing effort to help keep the public informed about the Alaska LNG project.)</em> Alaska is vast, with a lot of open ground, but it seems like transportation projects in the state — be it roads, railroads or pipelines — can’t help but cross over or under each other while traversing the same natural corridors.

As recently as last year, only four countries in the world were producing commercial volumes of either natural gas from shale formations (shale gas) or crude oil from tight formations (tight oil): the United States and Canada, and more recently, Argentina and China. Beyond these four countries, other countries have started exploring hydrocarbons from shale and other tight resources, but they are still short of reaching commercial production.

GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — A California beach fouled by an oil spill will reopen to swimmers and campers two months after a pipeline ruptured and spewed thousands of gallons of crude along the coast, officials said. State Parks rangers toured the shoreline west of Santa Barbara on Thursday and cleared Refugio State Beach to reopen July 17.

GOLETA, CA — The cost of cleaning up the oil spill that fouled beaches last month on the California coast has reached $62 million so far, pipeline company Plains All American Pipeline said Wednesday. Costs are running at $3 million a day, and there is no timetable for when the cleanup will be complete, the company's on-scene coordinator, Patrick Hodgins, told The Associated Press. The Plains All American is responsible for footing the bill after a pipeline break near Santa Barbara forced the closure of two state beaches and prompted a fishing ban in the area.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters investigating a reported petroleum stench at a California beach last month didn't take long to find a spill — oil was spreading across the sand and into the surf. Tracing the source, they found crude gushing from a bluff like a fire hose "without a nozzle," records show.

TransCanada Corp. has written to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arguing that new Canadian rules on emissions should persuade him to approve the construction of the much-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed $6.4 billion project would carry an estimated 830,000 bpd of Canadian crude oil per from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, NE, then link up with Keystone’s existing line, which would take the oil on the final leg to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Natural gas is increasingly being viewed as one of the most important sources of fuel in the coming decades. That is why Royal Dutch Shell, an oil major, made a huge bet onLNG when it decided to purchase BG Group, which has major holdings in LNG projects in Australia and East Africa.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — President Juan Manuel Santos says an oil spill triggered by a rebel attack on a pipeline the worst environmental disaster in Colombia's history. Santos made the comments Friday while visiting the southern port city of Tumaco to survey damage from the June 22 bombing by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The company blamed for a 31-acre sinkhole that forced 350 rural Louisiana residents out of their homes has sued Occidental Petroleum Corp., claiming that negligent drilling and production contributed to the damage. Texas Brine Co. said Occidental and Oxy USA Inc. should have to cover more than $100 million in damages that Texas Brine has paid or will have to pay. Occidental did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Assumption Parish.

CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust will acquire the Grand Isle Gathering System (GIGS), a subsea, midstream pipeline system with related onshore facilities serving oil-producing fields in the shallow portion of the Gulf of Mexico. GIGS is comprised of 153 miles of undersea pipeline, connects to seven oil fields, including four of the top 15 largest fields in the Gulf of Mexico shelf region with customers including ExxonMobil and Shell. It transports about 18,000 bpd of oil and 42,000 bpd of water with a capacity of 120,000 bpd.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Workers are preparing to recover a natural gas pipeline that ruptured in the Arkansas River, forcing closure of a 2-mile section of the river near Little Rock. Spectra Energy Corp. said the recovery process could begin Tuesday once conditions are safe enough to put divers in the water. The company provides gas to CenterPoint Energy in the Little Rock area. The leak in a 24-inch-wide backup pipeline occurred May 31. A section of pipe traveled downstream and now lies along the north bank of the Arkansas River.

The massive cyber-breach of the U.S. Government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) systems is the latest in a string of high-profile cyber-attacks in the last couple of years.

The count for both horizontal and vertical rigs in U.S tight formations has declining drastically from October 2014. This article discuss the declining rig count in the seven major Energy Information Administration (EIA) U.S. oil and natural gas regions.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) establishes state-by-state carbon emissions rate targets that it projects will reduce U.S. electricity sector carbon emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. Some stakeholders, including the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), have raised concerns that states might rely heavily on natural gas generation for CPP compliance, creating stress on gas pipeline capacity and ultimately affecting electric system reliability.

HOUSTON – Enterprise Products Partners announced today it executed definitive agreements to purchase all member interests in Eagle Ford Shale gas-gathering company EFS Midstream from affiliates of Pioneer Natural Resources Company and Reliance Industries Limited for $2.15 billion.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Environmentalists called on California Gov. Jerry Brown to halt plans for months of hydraulic fracturing in the waters off Southern California, warning that it could lead to chemical pollution or an oil spill. State regulators this month approved nine permits for operator Thums Long Beach Co. for so-called fracking operations between August and December in Long Beach Harbor.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and natural gas has not caused widespread harm to drinking water in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday in a report that also warned of potential contamination of water supplies if safeguards are not maintained.

Escalera Resources has agreed to buy producing wells and leasehold interests from Warren Resources. The deal is expected to in mid-August. The assets, located in the Atlantic Rim Area of the Washakie Basin, WY, are complementary to Escalera's existing holdings and consist primarily of Warren's 74% operated working interest in the Spyglass Hill Unit that Escalera already holds a 22% non-operated working interest.

It’s onward and stubbornly upward for the U.S. ethanol industry, which shows little sign of slowing after a record year in 2014. Weekly ethanol production matched its record high in the first week of June, equaling output from the week ending December 19, 2014. At 992,000 bpd, production is up 20,000 bpd from last week and more than 100,000 bpd since the beginning of May.

NEW YORK (AP) — European regulators have cleared Siemens' $7.6 billion acquisition of the U.S. oilfield equipment-maker Dresser-Rand. The German electronics and engineering company is beefing up its global oil and gas and power generation businesses, seeing growth opportunities in Dresser-Rand's portfolio of compressors, steam and gas turbines and engines. The deal is scheduled to close on June 30. Siemens AG has agreed to pay $83 per common share of Dresser-Rand, which has a market capitalization of $6.12 billion. The deal includes assumption of debt.

CUERO, TX (AP) — Authorities say no one was injured after a natural gas pipeline ruptured in rural South Texas, sparking a massive fire that prompted the evacuation of nearby homes. DeWitt County Emergency Operations Center spokeswoman Peggy Fonseca says an Energy Transfer Partners pipeline ruptured near Lindenau at about 8 p.m. Sunday. Fonseca said early Monday that the gas had been rerouted and the fire was extinguished. She said seven homes were evacuated but that no one was injured. Residents were allowed to return Sunday night following safety inspections.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — ExxonMobil has been forced to halt operations at three offshore oil platforms because it couldn't deliver to refineries in the wake of a broken pipeline that spilled up to 101,000 gallons of crude on the Santa Barbara coast, the company said. Operations temporarily ceased last week because Santa Barbara County rejected its emergency application to truck oil to refineries, spokesman Richard Keil said Tuesday.

CHALMETTE, La. (AP) — ExxonMobil and its partner, the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, will sell the Chalmette oil refinery on Louisiana's Gulf Coast for $322 million to a New Jersey energy company. Multiple news outlets report Friday that PBF Energy Inc., based in Parsippany, NJ, and one of the largest independent oil refiners in North America, has agreed to purchase the 189,000 bpd refinery as well as interests in chemical facilities, pipelines and other assets at the site. About 530 ExxonMobil employees and 500 contractors work at the refinery.

While Congress and the White House continue to wrangle over the Keystone XL pipeline extension, the oil industry is taking matters into its own hands. Markets are primed for an influx of Canadian crude oil, but with pipeline transport off the table for the foreseeable future, producers have built alternative modes to meet the demand. The problem is, recent disasters have soured legislators and environmentalists on road and rail for moving oil.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal jury has found a former BP executive not guilty of making false statements to investigators in connection with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Prosecutors said David Rainey, the former vice president of Exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, in the early days of the spill, manipulated calculations to match a far-too-low government estimate of the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. However, defense attorneys said Rainey's figures were made honestly and that he had no reason to lie.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — When Vermont became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in 2012, Gov. Peter Shumlin said the ban was "in keeping with our environmental ethic and our protection of our natural resources." But the state is likely on the verge of a big increase in the use of fracked gas from Canada.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officials in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana announced an $18.7 billion settlement with BP on Thursday that resolves years of litigation over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The settlement announcement comes as a federal judge was preparing to rule on how much BP owed in federal Clean Water Act penalties after millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf. Individual states also were pursuing litigation. Most of those penalties were to be distributed among the states for environmental and economic restoration projects along the Gulf Coast.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Gulfport Energy Corporation announced it will acquire additional acreage in the Utica Shale, associated assets and incremental firm transportation commitments from from Aubrey McClendon-backed American Energy for about $406 million. Among the properties involved: • Contiguous bolt-on acreage acquisitions totaling 35,325 net acres in Monroe, Belmont and Jefferson counties in Ohio • An 11-mile gas-gathering system that is operational in Monroe County to support near-term development

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House of Representatives panel has issued a subpoena to Secretary of State John Kerry for department documents, reports and letters related to the contentious push to build the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline. Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced the subpoena on Wednesday. The pipeline would transport oil from Canada's tar sands to pipelines linked to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.

GALENA, Ill. (AP) — The two rail cars that split open and burst into flames during a western Illinois oil train derailment were retrofitted with protective shields to meet a higher safety standard than federal law requires, the railroad said. Thursday's accident in a rural area south of the city of Galena is the latest failure of the safer tank car model and raises more concerns that even tougher requirements are needed.

U.S. crude oil production has grown rapidly in recent years, primarily from light, sweet crude from tight resource formations. About 90% of the nearly 3MMbpd growth in production from 2011 to 2014 consisted of light, sweet grades, meaning they have an API gravity of 40 or above and a sulphur content of 0.3% or less. EIA's <em>Annual Energy Outlook 2015</em> projects the U.S. supply of lighter API gravity crude oil from formations in regions such as the Bakken, Permian Basin, and Eagle Ford continues to outpace that of medium and heavier crudes.

The country’s oil imports have steadily climbed along with its growing economy. India has surpassed Japan in terms of oil imports multiple times over the past few years, and could trade spots again. But while they duel it out in the short-term, the outlook is clear. India’s import dependence is rising fast and it will be one of the largest sources of demand growth for the foreseeable future. The International Energy Agency predicts that India will burn through 4.1 MMbpd in the second quarter of this year, edging out Japan’s 3.8 MMbpd.

Indonesia, the most populous country in South East Asia, is trying hard to reshape its ailing energy industry as it seeks new investors in both its exploration and refining sectors to dramatically upgrade its energy capabilities. At a time when most new global investments in oil and gas projects have either been cancelled or postponed due to low oil prices, this latest move by Indonesia is a bold one. However, Indonesia’s poor infrastructure and difficult domestic regulatory environment have affected investment in the past, with only seven oil and gas contracts signed in 2014.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Colorado oilman must pay $16.8 million to reimburse energy companies for legal fees they incurred defending his unsuccessful lawsuits against them, a federal judge has ordered. Jack Grynberg received national attention when he filed scores of lawsuits against natural gas and pipeline companies around the West in the late 1990s.

Gulf LNG Liquefaction Company (GLLC) and Gulf LNG Energy (GLE) on Monday collectively filed an application with FERC for construction and operation of a new liquefaction and export facilities at GLE’s existing regasification terminal, located in Jackson County, MS. Additionally, Gulf LNG Pipeline (GLP) notified FERC minor modifications will be made to the existing pipeline facilities that interconnect with the terminal under GLP’s blanket authorization from the FERC. The applicants requested that FERC grant approvals no later than June 17, 2016.

Oil from Canada’s oil sands is about 20% more carbon-intensive on average than crude from elsewhere. That is the damming conclusion from a forthcoming new study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and its partners. The study looked at a wells-to-wheels analysis, which takes into account greenhouse gas emissions along the entire supply chain, from extraction to transit, refining, and finally combustion by the end user.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government has announced plans for nearly $10 billion worth of electricity and natural gas infrastructure projects, including a gas pipeline under the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to the port of Veracruz. The Federal Electricity Commission said Monday the costliest project would be the 500-mile underwater pipeline for carrying natural gas from South Texas. The pipeline is intended to go into operation in June 2018.

A new study by business information provider IHS forecasts significant growth and value in the market for natural gas and LNG as a transportation fuel. The study, <em>LNG in Transportation: Challenging Oil’s Grip</em> showed that use of natural gas as a transportation fuel could displace more than 1.5 MMbpd of oil demand by 2030. A combination of drivers — environmental, technological and commercial — will lead to greater adoption of natural gas in transport, the study said. The highest level of adoption will be in high-fuel-consuming applications such as trucks and ships.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's largest electric power utility says a new natural gas-powered generating unit that has gone online is the first of its kind in the state. Louisville Gas and Electric said Monday that the 640-megawatt unit at its Cane Run Generating Station in western Louisville is up and running. It replaces coal-burning units at the plant, which was built in the 1950s.

Over the past decade, domestic refinery output of petroleum products has grown significantly while consumption has declined, resulting in a major increase in product exports. Petroleum product exports averaged 4.1 MMbpd in the first four months of the year, an increase of 500,000 bpd over exports the same time last year. Product imports are also higher than last year, but to a lesser extent, leading to an increase in net petroleum product exports.

Even as the fallout from the Greek debacle continues to hammer oil prices, investors need to be on the lookout for future opportunities in the industry. One country that has generated a lot of interest among energy companies and investors is Mexico. Now, as America’s southern neighbor moves to reinvigorate its energy industry, U.S technological advances seem to be moving south.

U.S. shale has offered the oil industry a business model that is different from conventional drilling of the past. High initial decline rates, especially compared to conventional wells, requires companies to continuously drill to keep up production. But with lower upfront costs and shorter ramp up times, shale drilling is arguably less risky than a multibillion-dollar megaproject that the oil majors had become accustomed to over the past decade.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A group of five farm families is seeking a state permit for a natural gas well using gelled propane instead of water for fracking, thus avoiding New York's ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The Snyder Farm Group is seeking to develop a 53-acre natural gas well in the Tioga County town of Barton, near the Pennsylvania border. A permit application is in the preliminary stage before the Department of Environmental Conservation, a lawyer who represents the company seeking the permit said Thursday.

Pipeline & Gas Journal picked up a pair of Lone Star Awards from the Houston Press Club on Saturday night. You can read the articles at the links below:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's state-owned oil company says it found four shallow-water offshore oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico with total possible reserves of 350 MMbbls of crude equivalent. The Pemex company did not say how much of that total were proven or probable reserves. Pemex said Wednesday the fields should be brought into production in about 16 months and supply about 200,000 bpd and 170 MMcf of gas. The fields are in areas off the coast of the states of Campeche and Tabasco. They are among the three most important discoveries in the last five years.

Brazil’s Petrobras is staggering under the weight of its debt, the corruption scandal is not yet over, and it was recently forced to slash spending and dramatically lower its production target for 2020.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As thousands of gallons of crude oil from a ruptured pipeline spread along the California coast, its operator was unable to contact workers near the break to get information required to alert federal emergency officials, records released Wednesday said. Personnel for Plains All American Pipeline needed the precise location of the May 19 spill and an estimate of its size before notifying the National Response Center, a clearinghouse for reports of hazardous-material releases, according to federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration documents.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Photos of the pipeline that spilled oil on the Santa Barbara coast show extensive corrosion and provide clues about the cause of the rupture, experts said. Corrosion visible around the crack, coupled with wear documented inside the pipe, led Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, to believe the pipe burst during a pressure spike when the operator restarted pumps that had failed the morning of the May 19 spill.

NEW YORK (AP) — Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and India's Reliance Industries Ltd. have agreed to sell a pipeline and processing company to Enterprise Products Partners LP for $2.15 billion. Irving, TX-based Pioneer currently owns 50.1% of the Eagle Ford Shale Midstream business, while Reliance owns 49.9% of that business. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015. Enterprise Products is a gas and oil pipeline company based in Houston.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia regulators have asked Appalachian Power to maintain infrastructure at a closed coal-fired power plant that could one day be used to convert the facility to natural gas. Fully demolishing the Kanawha River Plant would rule out such a conversion, the Public Service Commission said in an order issued Tuesday. "We're just starting to understand the implications of the order," Appalachian Power spokeswoman Jeri Matheney said Wednesday. "We're going to have look at these costs and the feasibility of complying with the order."

TULSA, OK – Williams announced on Friday it has placed into service its Rockaway Delivery Lateral and Northeast Connector projects, increasing natural gas delivery capacity to Brooklyn and Queens and helping New York City meet its clean-air goals. With a daily delivery capacity of 647,000 dekatherms, the Rockaway Delivery Lateral provides an additional supply-delivery connection between Williams’ Transco transmission pipeline and the National Grid distribution system, which provides local natural gas service to 1.8 million customers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A pipeline rupture that spilled an estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil near Santa Barbara last month occurred along a badly corroded section that had worn away to a fraction of an inch in thickness, according to federal regulators. The preliminary findings released Wednesday by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration point to a possible cause of the May 19 spill that blackened popular beaches and created a 9-mile slick in the Pacific Ocean.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian gas company Gazprom halted supplies to neighboring Ukraine after the collapse of pricing talks, a company official said — but an EU official said the dispute would not affect the flow of Russian gas to Europe. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Russia stopped deliveries at 10 a.m. because Ukraine didn't make an advance payment for July's gas. "Gazprom is not going to send gas to Ukraine at any price without the advance payment," Miller said in comments carried by Russian news agencies.

MONACA, Pa. (AP) — Shell Chemical has been granted an air quality permit for a proposed petrochemical plant in western Pennsylvania, a step the company called "a critical milestone" as it decides whether to build the multibillion-dollar project along the Ohio River. The state Department of Environmental Protection announced Monday that it had approved the company's air quality plan and several water-related permits for the site in Potter Township, Beaver County.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota residents were split Monday over the merits of allowing the Keystone XL oil pipeline through the state, with some telling regulators the project would be an economic engine but others calling it a grave threat to the environment. More than 50 people offered their opinions on the state's portion of the pipeline during the three-hour South Dakota Public Utilities Commission session. The commission will make its decision after holding a final evidentiary hearing starting in late July.

As summer approaches, there are two things to know about natural gas prices in the New York/New England area. First, it is a difficult time to predict gas price movements in the Northeast. But in general, prices are down – and are likely to stay that way for this summer. It’s hard to predict prices because there are a lot of new and unpredictable supply-and-demand dynamics across the country that are particularly pronounced in the Northeast. For instance, the explosion of shale gas production in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Monday ruled against federal regulators' attempt to limit power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. The rules began to take effect in April, but the court split 5-4 along ideological lines to rule that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to take their cost into account when the agency first decided to regulate the toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants.

Increased refinery runs, based on increases in both capacity and use, have helped accommodate increases in U.S. crude oil production. The United States' capacity to refine crude oil into petroleum products – measured as operable atmospheric crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity – increased by 0.2% in 2014, reaching 18 MMbpd, according to EIA's annual Refinery Capacity Report.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state regulators say they'll work with Skagit County to conduct a full environmental review of a proposed oil-by-rail project at the Shell Puget Sound Refinery near Anacortes. Royal Dutch Shell wants to build a rail spur from existing railroad tracks to handle about 60,000 bpd, or about one mile-long train. The oil would be pumped from rail cars into storage tanks.

Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) on Monday confirmed it proposed a merger with The Williams Companies in an all-equity transaction valued at $53.1 billion, including the assumption of debt and other liabilities. Williams rejected the takeover offer. ETE said it made the offer in a May 19 letter to Williams CEO Alan Armstrong, which was followed in June 11 letter to the Williams chairman of the board.

Tulsa, OK-based Williams Cos. announced it will acquire the 40% of subsidiary Williams Partners it doesn’t already own through a unit share swap valued at about $13.8 billion. The transaction is expected to take place in the third quarter. Williams Partners, the master limited partnership that holds Williams natural gas infrastructure assets, was set up in 2005. The partnership grew and was instrumental in raising investor money, which was used to acquire more assets from Williams Cos.

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