April 2016, Vol. 243, No. 4

The best advice that I offer about energy is to be skeptical of what anyone tells you. No matter what side of the political or social spectrum you fall into, everyone has got an angle they want to sell. Don’t believe any of them without checking the facts and understanding where the message is comi..

The Offshore Technology Conference, (OTC 2016) – where energy professionals meet to exchange ideas and opinions to advance scientific and technical knowledge for offshore resources – will be held May 2-5 at NRG Park in Houston. The event is the world’s largest meeting place for offshore energy resou..

Sequent Energy Management became the first capacity trader in seven years to beat out Tenaska in Capacity Center’s annual Top 20 report, as seven companies dropped out of the 2015 rankings altogether. Houston-based Sequent, a subsidiary of AGL Resources, traded an average daily equivalent capacity ..

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Companies that drill for oil and gas in U.S. waters should be required to work more closely with rig workers and regulators, as they do in Norway and the United Kingdom, to reduce the risk of accidents, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) says. The board investigates major ind..

Responding to trends in increased diversity spend targets in contracts with key customers, including LDCs, EN Engineering recently implemented a focused, nationwide Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) initiative across our entire portfolio of engineering services. This article discusses how EN E..

At the beginning of 2016, Calgary, Alberta-based midstream developer and operator Veresen, Inc. had $1 billion invested in two gas-processing facilities under construction in the prolific Montney shale play in parts of British Columbia and Alberta. In giving guidance on a conference call just before..

 Special to Pipeline & Gas Journal The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) marked several pipeline milestones in 2015. These initiatives are designed to help make transmission pipeline operations safer and more transparent for Canadians and the environment: Pipeline Performance Report ..

A recent report by the Department of Economics and the Institute of Political Economy at Utah State University explored often overlooked factors that affect the cost of generating electricity from wind, solar, coal and natural gas. While most cost estimates include face-value or seen costs, such as ..

The first export shipment of LNG produced in the Lower 48 states and exported from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project in Sabine Pass, LA, Feb. 24 is a milestone reflecting a decade of natural gas production growth that has put the United States in a new position in worldwide energy t..

A historic milestone in America’s energy history was passed with the U.S’s first export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).  The shipment, worthy of celebration, comes in the midst of market volatility that amplifies the need for measures that would buttress the U.S. economy and keep growth – and employ..

Despite upheavals in energy markets, the end of Iran’s sanctions, and the decline in oil prices, supermajor Exxon Mobil expects the global energy environment 25 years from now to remain largely as it is today. In other words, oil and natural gas will remain dominant. In fact, the company’s Outlook ..

Today’s generating companies (GENCOs) need help transforming aging power plants through retirement, replacement, retrofitting or redevelopment. Of the 7,000 generating facilities in the United States, many are over 40 years old, and most have historically burned coal for an overall efficiency of 30%..

When it comes to satisfaction among business customers of gas utilities, one-in-four considers “safety and reliability” to be the most significant factor, according to a new study by marketing information firm J.D. Power. Other categories gaining responses as top priorities by respondents to the 11..

Quest Offshore’s subsea and deepwater outlook expects world deepwater pipeline demand to decrease in 2016 and 2017 due to the delay of startups as operators conserve cash flow and try to lower development costs. West Nile Delta, Shah Deniz Phase 2, Bardegg 2, Baronia EOR and Rota 3 Pipeline installa..

In the southern United States, Texas finds itself awash with gas while Mexico, its southern neighbor, has seen a decline of 24% in its domestic natural gas production since 2010 and is unable to meet rising domestic demand, according to a recent presentation by Kenneth S. Culotta, of the Houston ene..

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced Feb. 17 that it completed another significant safety recommendation issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) following the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion. The NTSB granted PG&E “closed acceptable action” status for installing the..

Recent polling suggests Canadians recognize that pipelines are the safest way to transport oil, that the National Energy Board garners a significant amount of public trust and that Quebeckers would rather get their oil from Alberta than Saudi Arabia. And still we find ourselves engaged in a politica..

Frank O. Welch, president of Rockford Corporation, presided over the Pipe Line Contractors Association’s 68th Annual Convention recently at the group’s recent annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale in Arizona. New officers elected for 2016 included Bernie Bermack of Pe Ben USA, Inc., presid..

Special to Pipeline & Gas Journal The presence of an underground natural gas transmission pipeline does not affect the sales prices or value of residential properties, according to a new study, “Pipeline Impact to Property Value and Property Insurability,” conducted by Integra Realty Resources on b..

Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey’s largest utility, recently got the go-ahead to speed up its gas pipeline infrastructure modernization efforts through a supplemental program to replace 38,000 service lines. New Jersey regulators approved a PSE&G plan to replace 400 miles..

It pays to learn a trade. That’s a story that Chris Jania can talk about. Jania, 43, has been a member of the Ironworkers Local Union 84 for 20 years and has been involved in a number of energy-related projects because he took the time to learn his craft, and learn it well. A Sagittarius, Jania emb..

With one ultra deepwater floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel on location and scheduled to come onstream before yearend and a second semi-submersible host platform under construction, Shell is gearing up to increase its deepwater production in the Gulf of Mexico. Construction w..

Even as the first tanker to carry liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to a foreign market was departing from the Louisiana facility that he built and later transformed  into an LNG export terminal, Charif Souki and Martin Houston announced the formation of Tellurian Investments, a new company offeri..

The boards of directors of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the INGAA Foundation Inc., the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association and the CEPA Foundation – major pipeline trade associations in the U.S. and Canada, respectively – recently voted to endorse a program to ensure all pipel..

Just like everything else, the bankruptcy river flows downstream, and as upstream players look to pass their debt burdens onto midstream operations through a rash of Chapter 11 filings, investors are wondering what is going to happen to all the pipelines as the industry continues to batten down the ..

(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. We will provide further updates as more information is available). The weak global market for liquefied natural gas – years of expected o..

Association News Low domestic natural gas prices led to savings of almost $69 billion for residential natural gas customers over the past four years, according to the American Gas Association’s 2016 American Gas Association Playbook. Filled with new data and detailed graphics, this handbook can be..

New proposed limits on flaring and venting of natural gas from wells on federal lands could be a boon to the pipeline construction industry. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed new limits in February to reduce atmospheric emissions of methane. Kyle Danish, a partner at Van Ness Feldman, ex..

Key Republicans and Democrats in the House were determined to pass a pipeline safety bill this year, although it may have some differences with the bill just passed by the Senate. That bill is called the Securing America’s Future Energy: Protecting Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (S..

Western Gas Partners LP will buy a majority stake in Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s South Texas oil and gas pipeline system for $750 million. The deal is for Springfield Pipeline LLC, which owns a 50.1% share in the overall gathering system in the Eagle Ford shale basin. The system serves Anadarko and i..

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a new investment in pipeline operator Kinder Morgan, boosting its bet on the oil industry as crude prices have hovered near 12-year lows. Berkshire owned about 26.53 million Kinder Morgan shares worth $395.9 million at year end, according to the Securiti..

Roughly a third of oil producers are at high risk of slipping into bankruptcy this year as low commodity prices crimp their access to cash and ability to cut debt, according to a study by auditing and consulting firm Deloitte. The report, based on a review of over 500 publicly traded oil and natura..

ExxonMobil Corp. failed to replace all of the oil and natural gas it pumped last year with new discoveries and acquisitions for the first time in over two decades. ExxonMobil said its called reserve-replacement ratio fell to 67% in 2015. Prior to that, the world’s largest oil explorer by market valu..

The University of Houston and Fluor are partnering to promote state-of-the-art training for students in the UH Department of Construction Management. The partnership was cemented with a $1 million grant from the Fluor Foundation, Fluor’s philanthropic organization, which UH will use as a research gr..

New York State still has yet to give final approval for the $700 million Constitution Pipeline which Williams and several partners have proposed building from northeastern Pennsylvania through New York’s Southern Tier. On Jan. 29 the operators received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulator..

Energy ministers and secretaries from Canada, Mexico, and the United States are launching a framework for sharing energy information for North America. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the website can be displayed in English, French, and Spanish and has links to all three cou..

Routing gas transmission pipelines along the Pennsylvania Turnpike would help the state’s environment and balance sheet, said GOP Rep. Scott Petri, who has introduced legislation giving the turnpike commission authority to allow use of its right-of-way for commercial transmission pipelines and charg..

PECO recently welcomed 10 new natural gas apprentice mechanics to its field force, following completion of a comprehensive seven-week training program. The mechanic- training program is designed to develop the fundamental skills that new natural gas mechanics need to work safely on the southeastern ..

External corrosion on a pipeline pumping crude was the root cause of the rupture last May that spilled over 140,000 gallons of oil on the Santa Barbara coast, federal regulators reported. The spill occurred after pumps on the Plains All American Pipeline were shut down and restarted, sending a large..

PIRA Energy Group, a leader in global energy market analysis, added new industry leaders in its global gas and power team. Teri Viswanath was named a managing director of North American Gas. She comes from BNP Paribas and spent over two decades within banking and at Dynegy. John Ell is a senior anal..

Shell completed its acquisition on Feb. 15 of BG Group, a British company formed in 1997 from the privatization and breakup of state-owned British Gas. The Group has sites in over 20 countries and draws 75% of its LNG customers from Asia. BG delivered 17.9 million metric tons of LNG in 2015, up 63% ..

A Los Angeles-area injection well was permanently sealed on Feb. 18 and taken out of service, according to Southern California Gas. The leak was temporarily plugged earlier and SoCalGas finished pumping cement into the base of the well. Residents who were relocated to temporary housing because of th..

The board of directors of Caspian Pipeline Consortium met in Moscow recently to discuss a planned expansion project that includes rehabilitation of five existing and construction of 10 additional pump stations (two in Kazakhstan and eight in the Russian Federation), six new storage tanks (100,000 cu..

Fluor Corp.’s consortium has met substantial completion on the Gavião Branco facility in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, turning it over to Parnaíba Gás Natural (PGN), Brazil’s leading private gas exploration and production company. The consortium performed basic and detailed engineering, procuremen..

Alexey Miller, chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Marc Benayoun, CEO of Edison SpA, and Theodoros Kitsakos, CEO of DEPA SA, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on natural gas deliveries across the Black Sea from Russia via third countries to Greece and from Greece to Italy in or..

The International Energy Agency says Canada needs to put more public money towards research and development in the energy sector. As noted in a National Observer article, the IEA says the funding injection is needed to make Canada’s oil and gas industry more cost-competitive and reduce its environme..

Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya has been sworn in as head of Pemex, replacing Emilio Lozoya, who had served since 2012. Pemex reported that pipeline thefts fell 34% in January from the same month last year, attributing tougher laws and tighter security. Low oil prices have hampered some projects and bid..

Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. is being broken up into dozens of distinct companies, according to a UPI report. “For the first time, we are unbundling the subset of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. to 30 independent companies with their own managing directors,” Nigerian Petroleum Minister a..

Punj Lloyd, in a 50-50 joint venture with Limak, was awarded the contract to construct 459 km of the 48-inch Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) gas pipeline in Turkey. Awarded by TANAP Doğalgaz İletim A.Ş., Punj Lloyd’s value of the project is US$ 204 million. TANAP will be built ..

Subsea 7 S.A. is working under a contract from BP, and partner DEA (Deutsche Erdoel AG), to development of the Giza, Fayoum and Raven subsea fields offshore Alexandria, Egypt. This is the second phase of the West Nile Delta project, where the field development will be at depths of up to 800 meters. ..

Ditch Witch®, a Charles Machine Works Company, has introduced its new line of walk-behind trenchers with six models – the C12, C14, C16, C16X, C24X and C30X. Each is designed to ease operator use, improve jobsite performance and maximize ROI for equipment rental companies. The lineup utilizes the Di..

Bayou Bridge Pipeline started commercial operations on the 30-inch segment of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline from Nederland, TX, to Lake Charles, LA. The project is owned by subsidiaries of Phillips 66 Partners, Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners. In addition, as a result of successf..

Harvest Pipeline Company affiliate, Arrowhead Offshore Pipeline, LLC, launched a binding open season that ended March 31 to solicit commitments for its Point Comfort Pipeline project. Once complete, the project will permit Arrowhead to offer transportation services of crude petroleum from Jackson Co..

Enbridge’s 20-inch, 58-km Heidelberg Oil Pipeline has been brought into service three months ahead of schedule. The Heidelberg Oil Pipeline is located in the Gulf of Mexico, 322 km southwest of New Orleans, and transports crude oil from Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s Heidelberg development to a third-pa..

Constitution Pipeline Company officials said Monday they remain steadfastly committed to pursuing the federally approved energy infrastructure project, despite the recent decision by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to deny a critical permit for the 124-mile Const..

Mexican oil and gas giant Pemex and ENGIE, a French energy company, have selected Emerson to help upgrade and expand Mexico’s gas pipeline infrastructure. The $8.9 million project is part of Mexico’s energy reform initiative. Because existing natural gas availability is expected to fall short of dem..

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Canada’s National Energy Board has granted conditional approval to a massive Enbridge Inc., project to replace a pipeline that would enable more Canadian crude to flow into the U.S. The $7.5-billion Line 3 Replacement project involves rebuilding a 1031-mile (1,660-kilometer)..

ExxonMobil has started production at its Point Thomson project, the first company-operated project on Alaska’s North Slope. Central pad facilities are designed to initially produce about 5,000 bpd of condensate and 100 MMscf/d of recycled gas. The recycled gas is re-injected for future recovery. At..

TULSA, OK – Williams Partners announced the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved an application for Transco’s Garden State Expansion Project, a fully contracted expansion to deliver 180,000 dekatherms a day of additional natural gas capacity for local distribution to thousands of cus..

Floridian Natural Gas Storage Company, LLC (FGS) is soliciting non-binding bid proposals from interested parties for a firm liquefaction, storage, and redelivery by vaporization service to a new delivery point through an interconnect with Florida Gas Transmission Company (FGT) at a location at or ne..

Fluor Corp. has won a construction management contract from Sunoco Logistics for the Mariner East 2 project at its Marcus Hook Industrial Complex on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. Fluor booked the undisclosed contract value into backlog in the fourth quarter of 2015. Upon completion, Mariner E..

Kinder Morgan canceled its $3.1 billion Northeast Direct pipeline project, which was scheduled to bring gas to Boston and the New England area starting in 2018. In July, Kinder Morgan’s board authorized subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) to move forward with the project’s “market path” segment..

Laclede Group plans to tap into a new natural gas supply with a pipeline connecting to the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in the eastern U.S. Laclede CEO Suzanne Sitherwood announced the project in an earnings call with investors and said it will help the natural gas distributor diversify its ..

Magnolia LNG received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization  to site, construct and operate facilities to liquefy and export domestically produced natural gas from its LNG terminal near Lake Charles, LA. Plans call for construction of  four 2 mtpa liquefaction production trains,..

Medallion Pipeline announced a binding open season through May 11 for firm transportation capacity on the fifth major expansion of the company’s existing crude oil pipeline system. The expansion project is expected to begin full commercial operations in the third quarter, although certain segments ..

On April 11, 2016, Mountaineer NGL Storage, LLC began its non-binding open season for up to 1.6 million barrels of initial storage capacity with more than 25,000 bbls per day of load-in and load-out. The Mountaineer NGL Storage Project will provide storage services to a growing number of gas proces..

Medallion Pipeline Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Medallion Midstream LLC, held an open season that ran through March 16 to solicit long-term commitments from shippers for firm transportation capacity on the fourth major expansion of Medallion’s existing crude oil pipeline system. The project propose..

Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline received approval from the Alberta Energy Regulator for the construction of two 270-km, 24- and 16-inch pipelines between Fox Creek and Namao. The project is part of the company’s Phase 3 Expansions. Once complete, Pembina will have four pipelines in the Fox Creek-to-..

Pieridae Energy (Canada) Ltd. and its operating subsidiary corporations (Pieridae) continue to meet major milestones with their proposed Goldboro LNG processing facility. On Feb. 5 Pieridae received its Non-Free Trade Export authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy. This allows U.S.-sourced ..

Summit Midstream Partners, LP has begun operations of the Stampede Lateral crude oil transmission pipeline in North Dakota and is in the final stages of completing the nearby Little Muddy crude oil transmission pipeline, which includes an interconnect with Enbridge’s North Dakota Pipeline System. Th..

Phillips 66 has begun operations of its 100,000-bpd NGL fractionator located at its Sweeny Complex in Old Ocean, TX. Sweeny Fractionator One supplies purity ethane and LPG to the petrochemical industry and heating markets. It is supported by 250 miles of new pipelines and a multimillion-barrel stora..

Wood Group has contracted with CATS Management Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Antin Infrastructure Partners, to provide operating services for the Central Area Transmission System (also known as CATS) in the North Sea. Wood Group PSN will have day-to-day responsibility for the terminal and pi..

Ralph A. LaRossa is a busy man these days. His company, Public Service Electric & Gas Co. (PSE&G), is embarking on an extensive multi-year upgrading of its North Jersey and environs territory (see related article). His peers at the American Gas Association thought enough of his experience and abilit..

WOODSBORO, Texas (AP) — Two workers have been killed and another was hurt during a high-pressure release as the men repaired a South Texas gas pipeline. Refugio County authorities say the accident happened Tuesday at a Southcross Energy Partners plant near Woodsboro. Justice of the Peace Lorraine ..

TOWANDA, Pa. (AP) — Jami Patel spends long hours behind the front desk of a nearly empty motel, desperate for someone, anyone, to check in. Hardly anyone ever does, not since the once-booming natural gas industry pulled up stakes amid a prolonged, severe slump in energy prices. “I don’t know how mu..

The American Gas Association (AGA) today praised the U.S. Senate for passing the Energy Policy Modernization Act (S. 2012) which contains several provisions that would benefit natural gas customers throughout the nation, including a provision to increase energy efficiency in federal buildings. “The..

American Midstream Partners bought a 66.7% interest in the 100-mile Okeanos pipeline, a gas gathering system located in the Gulf of Mexico, from an affiliate of the partnership’s general partner. The acquisition complements the company’s existing offshore infrastructure and strengthens its in offsho..

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is planning to issue a final rule designed to enhance the safety of offshore oil drilling equipment. The rule, expected to be announced Thursday, comes in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 people and dumped millions of gallo..

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An explosion killed 13 people and injured scores at a petrochemical plant on Mexico’s southern Gulf coast, forcing evacuations as a fire billowed a huge toxin-filled cloud into the air. The head of Mexico’s civil defense agency, Luis Felipe Puente, wrote in his Twitter account Th..

In its recent publication, Canada’s Energy Future (CEF), Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) projects that both Canada’s natural gas production and its domestic natural gas consumption will increase through the next decade. Exports of natural gas by pipeline to the United States are expected to con..

CH2M today announced the expansion of its U.S. pipeline and facilities engineering capabilities in Houston. The company named KC Yost, a 40-year industry veteran who recently joined the firm after 18 years at Wood Group Mustang, to lead this new group. Yost is recognized as a pipeline and facilitie..

China might be in the midst of another round of stockpiling, stepping up crude oil imports to fill its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR). The slowdown in oil demand in China is one of the chief concerns regarding the state of oversupply in global oil markets. Excess production has driven down price..

Crimson Pipeline, LLC  has expanded transportation services to the Central and Northern California crude oil markets with its subsidiary’s acquisition of KLM Pipeline (and ancillary assets) and Western San Joaquin Laterals (WSJ) from Chevron Pipe Line Company (CPL). The KLM Pipeline transports crud..

In response to continued low oil prices, onshore crude oil production in the Lower 48 states is expected to decline from an average of 7.41 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2015 to 6.46 million b/d in 2016 and to 5.76 million b/d in 2017. Increased production from the federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is..

IRVING, TX – Oil production started under budget and ahead of schedule at the Julia oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, ExxonMobil said Tuesday. The first production well is now online and a second well will start production in the coming weeks.  The Julia development is located 265 miles southw..

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Significant barriers exist in using carbon dioxide to enhance oil recovery in North Dakota but the “long-term prize” could be billions of extra barrels of oil, a consultant told lawmakers Wednesday. Curtis Smith, a geologist with Houston-based IHS Inc., told the North Dakota L..

Husky Energy will sell 65% ownership interest in select midstream assets in the Lloydminster region of Alberta and Saskatchewan to Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings and Power Assets Holdings Limited (PAH). Husky, which will remain the operator, will receive $1.7 billion of gross cash proceeds, whi..

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil exporting countries in the Middle East lost a staggering $390 billion in revenue due to lower oil prices last year, and should brace for even deeper losses of around $500 billion this year, the International Monetary Fund said Monday. The fund had projected in..

Jacobs Engineering Group received a contract for detailed engineering of facilities associated with the Tuxpan-Tula Pipeline Project in Mexico. As subcontractor for pipeline facilities, Jacobs is providing engineering, procurement and field engineering support for the installation of a compressor s..

The recent eight-day outage on TransCanada’s cross-border Keystone pipeline potentially removed 4.6 MMbbls of oil from entering the United States from Canada and was a widespread influence on crude stock levels in both countries, according to Genscape. The 590,000 bpd pipeline resumed flow April 10..

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Oil unions in Kuwait ended a three-day strike over government cutbacks, authorities said Wednesday, though it remained unclear what concessions may have been granted to the workers amid low global crude prices. The state-run Kuwait News Agency reported that the unions ended the s..

U.S. propane exports have increased significantly over the past three years, but only after market participants worked to overcome several challenges in transporting propane to export customers. After largely overcoming the first challenge of building sufficient export capacity, the next challenge i..

LONDON (AP) — The failure by oil-rich nations to agree to freeze production sent crude prices lower Monday. But prices recovered much of their losses by afternoon, and analysts said that oil is likely to rise in the longer term as many companies, particularly in the U.S., scale back output. The ef..

Leaders of the Natural Gas Council (NGC) today released an independent, objective and fact-based guide to more than 70 different analyses of methane emissions from natural gas systems. The report, ‘Finding the Facts on Methane Emissions: A Guide to the Literature,’was authored by ICF International a..

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The government announced more than $4 billion in aid Wednesday for state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, whose finances, production and exploration projects have been hit by the fall in crude prices. The package will include a direct infusion of $1.5 billion to the company bette..

U.S natural gas net imports fell to 2.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015, continuing a decline that began in 2007, when net imports of natural gas exceeded 10 Bcf/d. While both U.S. natural gas consumption and production have increased in recent years, natural gas production has grown slig..

A natural gas explosion at a Pennsylvania pipeline complex sent flames hundreds of feet into the air on Friday and burned a nearby home, injuring the man who lived there, officials said. The state Department of Environmental Protection said the blast was traced to a 36-inch pipeline, which exploded..

Working natural gas inventories ended the winter heating season at 2,478 billion cubic feet (Bcf), exceeding the previous end-of-March record high of 2,473 Bcf, set in 2012, according to EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. Inventory withdrawals during the traditional heating season (November th..

Though a game-changing gas discovery for Israel and for the discoverer, Texas-based Noble Energy, the giant Leviathan offshore gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean has been one bureaucratic headache after another. Now reports are surfacing that the company is seeking to reduce exposure by selling ..

Oil prices surged to their highest levels in six months on Wednesday as the Fed left interest rates unchanged. WTI jumped by 2.8 percent to $45.29 per barrel and Brent climbed by 3.17 percent to $47.19 per barrel. Those are the highest prices so far in 2016 and the oil markets continue to bet on ri..

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A petroleum tanker laden with 175,000 barrels of North Dakota crude was being offloaded in Europe on Wednesday, the first such overseas shipment of the state’s oil since Congress lifted a 40-year ban on crude exports in December. North Dakota’s congressional delegation and ind..

The headlines reacting to OPEC’s April Oil Market Report generally read “OPEC concerned about global oil demand” and as such, oil prices traded down slightly on April 13, despite an overall positive market. Well, I’m concerned about global oil demand also, so I thought I better read their report. C..

Plains All American Pipeline subsidiary Pine Prairie Energy Center and Cheniere Energy Partners entered into a 10-year firm storage service agreement with Cheniere subsidiary Sabine Pass Liquefaction. Under the plan, Pine Prairie will provide 8 Bcf of natural gas storage capacity to Cheniere, begin..

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s energy minister has discussed a Russian-U.S.-Romanian drilling project in the Black Sea where more than 30 billion cubic meters (1,060 billion cubic feet) of natural gas have been discovered. The office of Energy Minister Victor Grigorescu said Thursday that he m..

Southern Kentucky (SOKY) Energy completed the purchase of natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines in South Central Kentucky from Houston-based Atmos Gathering Company for an undisclosed price.  SOKY Energy has also acquired over 100 producing gas wells connected to the pipeline network from..

  Above-normal temperatures during the 2015-16 winter were a key factor in lowering heating demand and winter fuel expenditures. Compared with the 2014-15 winter, propane and heating oil demand decreased by 16% and 45%, respectively, and residential electricity demand decreased by 6%. The 2015-16..

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Oil drilling companies and royalty owners from the Texas Panhandle to New Mexico’s stretch of the Permian Basin are embarking on a grass-roots campaign to limit foreign oil imports, salvaging what they say is a major sector of the U.S. economy. “American oil is competing ag..

U.S. natural gas production reached a record high level of 79 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015, an increase of 5% from the previous year, even as natural gas prices remained relatively low. Production from five states—Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and North Dakota—was respon..

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Ugandan official says hopes to produce crude oil by 2018 have been boosted by an agreement to build a pipeline through Tanzania to Tanga port. Bukenya Matovu, spokesman for Uganda’s energy ministry, said Tuesday the agreement with Tanzania comes after months of uncertainty ..

COATZACOALCOS, Mexico (AP) — The death toll from an explosion that ripped through a petrochemical plant on Mexico’s southern Gulf coast is now 24, state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos reported. Pemex raised the toll late Thursday from the 13 fatalities previously known and said eight workers remai..

Total U.S. energy production increased for the sixth consecutive year. According to data in EIA’s most recent Monthly Energy Review, energy production reached a record 89 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), equivalent to 91% of total U.S. energy consumption. Liquid fuels production drove the in..

HOUSTON (AP) — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 11 this week to 420, again reaching an-time low amid depressed energy industry prices. A year ago, 905 rigs were active. Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday 332 rigs sought oil an..

The first U.S. LNG shipment will soon arrive in Europe, marking a new era for energy on the continent. Cheniere Energy’s newly completed Sabine Pass facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast recently sent a shipment of American liquefied natural gas, which should arrive in Portugal within a few days. “LNG co..

A new study by Wood Mackenzie warns the global oil market could face a supply shortfall of 4.5 million b/d by 2035, if exploration success doesn’t improve. Wood Mackenzie says discoveries in recent years have been disappointing, with the volume of liquids discovered per annum more than halving over ..

The Wolfe Man 8000 Extreme Duty is the latest and toughest wheel machine provided by A & E Construction Supply, which is manufactured by Wolfe Man International. It is built to perform in extreme dirt conditions, capable of going 8 feet deep and 34 inches wide. The Wolfe Man 8000 XD has 1½-inch rims..

CASE Construction Equipment recently introduced the 521F wheel loader that meets federal Tier 4 Final emissions standards using Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology. The new machine delivers best-in-class 131 net peak horsepower with an FPT Tier 4 Final-certified engine that also provides ..

Conval offers Clampseal Throttling Valves for severe service applications that require repeatable flow control and dependable shutoff. The valves are available in ½ – to 4-inch sizes through ASME Class 4500. Standard forging materials include SA 105, SA 182-F22, SA 182-F91, SA 182-F92, and SA 182-F3..

When tubes and pipes of certain materials, such as stainless steel, titanium, copper-nickel and zirconium are welded together it is desirable to purge the oxygen out of the inside of the weld zone to prevent it from reacting with the hot metal and causing oxidation, porosity, discoloration and loss ..

The problem of quickly aligning different sizes of pipe with one clamp and, at the same time, having a sturdy tool that stands up to heavy field use is answered with the INT pipe alignment clamps. With the INT Series of pipe alignment clamps a welder can invest in three clamps that cover a range of ..

Keytroller is offering Cyperwatch SAT— a satellite wireless hour, alarm and location meter designed to locate and track equipment in remote locations that don’t typically have cellular or WiFi. Cyberwatch CYBERWACCYCH SAT provides equipment monitoring from anywhere in the world, without the need for..

Miller Electric Mfg. Co. released its 116-page catalog showcasing everything from the Millermatic® 125 Hobby MIG and Millermatic® MIG Welder systems to welder generators, helmets and protective eyewear. Miller can provide specs and comparisons on MIG welders, TIG welders and torches, stick welders, ..

Newpark Mats and Integrated Services (NMIS) offer two levels of protection against spills and leaks with its DX4 Sealing Technology. Featuring redundant seals integrated into the overlapping and interlocking lips of the company’s DURA-BASE® mats, the system reduces, and in some cases, completely eli..

SlatTrax® is offering a ground protection system designed for use with a skid loader that rolls out or retrieves to provide up to 100 feet of temporary roadway in two minutes. The system includes a hydraulically powered attachment that holds dual spools of Trax – each 36 inches or 42 inches wide and..