September 2016, Vol. 243, No. 9

Association News Jim Skidmore, chancellor emeritus of the Community and Technical College System of West Virginia, has joined the Natural Gas Training Council Board of Directors. The Council is a non-profit organization partnering with industry and communities to educate workers and increase knowl..

Renewables and natural gas: Can it get any better than this? For President Obama, who has professed appreciation for both, this would have to be a win-win situation. As I write this column, folks are preparing to complete a unique energy experiment near St. Louis, MO. They plan to produce what they..

Why Inspect? “Last root-ball before lunch!” thought Joe the plumber, as he ran the snake up the sewer lateral toward a tangle of roots and tissue. The cutting tool spinning at the end of the snake hung up a bit, but the motor powered it through the blockage all the way up under the foundation of th..

Israel’s decision to adopt changes to guidelines under which U.S. developers operate in its massive Leviathan natural gas field will likely lead to the largest infrastructure project the tiny nation has ever seen. The move clears the way for Houston-based Noble Energy’s planned $5 billion natural g..

The North Sea will see a rise in infrastructure deals this year, with private equity funds playing an increasing role in midstream assets, according to business advisory firm Deloitte. Against the backdrop of a low oil price, more oil and gas companies are looking to rationalize their portfolios an..

The Department of Transportation (DOT) requires “offerors” of hazardous materials to develop and adhere to a site-specific security plan that evaluates transportation security risks and appropriate measures to address those risks. For the midstream sector, questions often arise as to whether or not ..

Forecasted growth in Canadian oil production shows new major oil pipelines are urgently needed to deliver energy to domestic and world markets, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) announced in its 2016 Crude Oil Forecast, Markets and Transportation report. CAPP’s report offered a..

This is an overview of one the world’s most important oil producing regions. South America is the fourth-largest continent (6,890,000 square miles) and is rich in natural resources that include gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, natural gas and oil. Collectively, the nations of South America produ..

While geographic information systems (GIS) have been around in commercial form since the early 1980s, subsequent technologies for data capture, storage and processing have improved rapidly in both resolution and scope. In terms of data capture, technologies that explicitly incorporate spatial refere..

With due respect to Edwin Drake who drilled the nation’s first oil well in Pennsylvania a couple of years before the Civil War broke out, and to George Mitchell and his cohorts who over a century later perfected the commercialization of horizontal drilling, micro-seismic imaging and hydraulic fractu..

With the growing use of high-speed separable reciprocating compressors in natural gas storage and transmission applications, the Gas Machinery Research Council (GMRC) identified the need for better guidelines and practices to govern the specification, design and application of this class of compress..

Analysis by Frost & Sullivan researchers suggests the oil and gas industry is the single-largest customer in the pipeline gas compressor market, worth over $6 billion in 2014 and forecast to surpass $8 billion in 2021. In the United States alone, according to the federal Energy Information Administ..

MONACA, PA – Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of NiSource, recently opened a modern, centralized training facility for employees who operate and maintain its natural gas distribution system. The $10 million, 22,000-square-foot facility is the first of four leading-edge training centers th..

The Marcellus Shale has had a tremendous effect on several states in the Northeast, including Pennsylvania. The exploration, production, and transportation of billions of cubic feet of natural gas has brought many jobs and an influx of people and cultures previously unseen to north-central Pennsylva..

The power generation industry is undergoing sweeping change. Global governments finally accept the reality of climate change and are opting for generation with lower carbon footprints, as witnessed in the COP21 agreement and various national policies. Generation is also shifting from a centralized m..

Transient flow regularly occurs in the gas pipeline during normal operation due to variations in demand, inlet and outlet flow changes, and compressor start and stop. Transients can also occur in natural gas pipelines during filling and line pressurization, emergency shutdown, gas blowdown, line dep..

CEO Gary Conway likes to say his company’s brand, as well as its philosophy, has much in common with the centuries-old Mexican horsemanship tradition of the same name, which values equestrian quality of achievement over rapid results. “The word vaquero essentially means willing partnership,” the 24..

Pipelines Support ‘Ends’ of PHMSA Proposal, Not the ‘Means’ Broad pipeline industry opposition to several aspects of the newly proposed transmission pipeline regulations is as much about methane emissions as it is about safety. The proposal from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administ..

Houston Pipeliners Award Scholarships, Pick Officers The Houston Pipeliners Association handed out over $550,000 to 80-plus soon-to-be college students through its scholarship program as members wrapped up the year’s business at the June meeting. The students selected were each related to a current..

PDVSA’s Future Clouded by Venezuelan Crisis National oil company PDVSA may badly need money and could be in such a precarious condition that it causes the demise of the wider Venezuelan oil sector, according to an article in Oilprice.com. Oilfield union officials in the Lake Maracaibo region leake..

FERC Approves Williams Partners’ Dalton Expansion Project Williams Partners L.P. has won Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval for Transco’s fully contracted Dalton Expansion project to provide additional natural gas service to utilities and a municipal entity in northwest Georgia. The Da..

Tulsa, OK-based Murphy by Enovation Controls has introduced its VRU Pro, a new controller designed specifically for vapor recovery applications. The flexible, out-of-the-box solution pairs with smaller horsepower compressors in vapor recovery operations and is certified for Class 1, Division 2 hazar..

CoorsTek, an engineered ceramics manufacturer in Golden, CO, said a team of scientists from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences, the University of Oslo (Norway) and the Instituto de Tecnología Química (Spain) has developed a new process to use natural gas as raw material for aromatic chemicals. The process ..

There are two ways to design pig traps: the first is for cleaning or batching pigs, the second is for smart pigs. Cleaning pigs are short – about a diameter-and-a-half long, requiring a short pig trap barrel for easy loading and removal. Smart pigs are long, up to 10 diameters, requiring long pig tr..

Juniper Systems, Inc. Juniper Systems, Inc. introduced its nonincendive Class I, II, and III, Division 2-certified Mesa 2 Hazloc, designed to perform in hazardous locations where explosive gases, liquids, vapors, dusts, or fibers and flyings may be present. It is said to be ideal for oil and gas ma..