September 2017, Vol. 244, No. 9

Archive

Company & Association News

Business: Association News, Personnel Changes, Mergers & Acquisitions

Hobart Institute of Welding Technology in Troy, OH, highlighted its latest addition and renovation, including a new welding learning facility featuring four state-of-the art classrooms that seat up to 120 students and a dedicated non-destructive laboratory and classroom for hands-on liquid penetrant..

Editor's Notebook

Opposition to Pipeline Construction Projects Nothing New

Isn’t it interesting that no matter how much changes in the our industry, certain things are designed to never change. One of the first major conferences I covered was the 13th Annual Arthur Andersen Oil & Gas Symposium held in Houston in December 1992. Arthur Andersen held one of the most influent..

Features

Bolivia’s Sucre-Potosí Pipeline Offers Energy Boost for 2018

Bolivia to receive an energy boost from the Sucre-Potosí Gas pipeline construction project.

Brazos’ Midstream Strategy Includes Compression

Fort Worth-based Brazos Midstream isn’t your typical midstream company. Actually, in today’s energy industry there is no typical midstream company. Few, if any, are identical, and their mixture of assets can change almost daily, depending on business conditions and the management team’s strategy. W..

Customized Protective Coatings Extends Life of Rotating Equipment

Achieving an acceptable service life without excessive maintenance can be a challenge for rotating equipment that is used in processing and delivery of hydrocarbon products. With the latest surface coating technologies it is possible to offer massive improvements to the expected service life of comp..

DTE Energy Finds Communication a Key in Replacement Effort

When it comes to huge long-term infrastructure replacement programs, few equal that of DTE Energy’s ongoing effort in Michigan. Not only is the service territory  massive – 20,000 square miles spread across the state – there is also the not-so simple matter of trying to upgrade 20,000 copper gas me..

DTE Looks to Future, $1 Billion Natural Gas Power Plant

DTE is seeking permission to build a natural gas-fired power plant northeast of Detroit in a move toward closing coal-fired plants, the company said recently. The plan calls for construction of the $1 billion plant to begin in 2019 in St. Clair County, where DTE has operated coal-fired power plants..

Environmental Dissonance: Troubling Times for Oil & Gas Operators

In mid-2017, in a remote, sparsely populated part of the Four Corners area of New Mexico, members of the Navajo Nation Council came to the Counselor Chapter House to listen to some of their constituents, and for five hours they got an earful. Local folks living among increased hydraulic fracturing j..

Excavators Look to Doosan for Challenging TAP Project

Doosan's line of excavators help the Trans Adriatic pipeline construction project make good progress.

Gas and Globalization: How Rising Production Affects Buyers

Access to natural gas has never been easier. Since 2005, countries with natural gas reserves have been ramping up their extraction efforts, resulting in a supply surplus in the United States and abroad. This years-long trend has prompted more suppliers to expand their reach into the global marketpla..

Managing Liquid Pipeline Risk Through Drinking Water USA Assessment

You sit across from the salesman, smiling – ready to close on the car of your dreams. Concerned about affording upkeep, you opt to purchase an extended warranty. The warranty is meticulous. As you read through it you notice that it covers, among other things, a cassette deck, a timing chain, cigaret..

Natural Gas and LNG: Future of Electricity

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that 1.2 billion people, or 17% of the world’s population, has no access to electricity. About 38% or 2.7 billion lack clean cooking facilities. “More than 95% of these people are either in sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia, and around 80% are in rur..

New Gas Machinery Research Council Guideline Developed

With the widespread use of high-speed separable reciprocating compressors throughout the oil and natural industry, the Gas Machinery Research Council (GMRC) has been active in developing better guidelines and practices for the specification, design and application of this type of compression equipme..

Oil & Gas Officials Confident in Industry’s Bright Future

West Virginia oil and gas officials continue to be optimistic about the industry’s future in West Virginia. Scott Freshwater, president of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, said that even though the price of natural gas in the Appalachian basin is discounted right now becaus..

Reciprocating Compressor Pulsations Effect on Compressor Surge Margins

The mixed operation of centrifugal and reciprocating compressors in a single compression plant has become common design practice over the last 20 years, as this arrangement can provide benefits for highly cyclical process profiles. Conventional thinking was that a centrifugal compressor may experie..

Turkey’s Gas Pipelines at Major Crossroad

Natural gas pipeline construction projects at a major crossroads in Turkey

Welding is Literally Brian Laing’s Middle Name

It’s been exactly 35 years since Brian Laing began work at CRC-Evans, a global leader in pipeline construction technologies, equipment and services. Since that time he has overseen the company’s growth into managing subsea services, field joint coating, weighting systems and non-destructive testing ..

Government

Government

Appeals Court Decision May Trump House Pipeline Bill The House passed two pipeline bills – which could run into trouble in the Senate for lack of Democratic support – amid continuing industry unhappiness with federal and state regulatory agency foot-dragging on permit approvals. The U.S. Court of ..

In The News

In the News

Did BP Just Unlock a New Major Shale Gas Basin? BP made a potentially groundbreaking discovery in New Mexico, which could open up a new area for shale gas development. The oil major was drilling in a little-known area in northern New Mexico, in a place called the Mancos Shale. BP reported huge figu..

World News

Russia May Break Gazprom Monopoly to Stimulate LNG A Russian Security Council commission has recommended breaking down Gazprom’s gas export monopoly in a bid to boost the competitiveness of Russia’s gas, Russian daily Vedomosti reported after seeing the protocol from a recent meeting of the commiss..

Projects

Projects

An overview of the latest news concerning pipeline construction projects worldwide, as featured in our September 2017 issue.

TechNotes

New Tools Can Cut Station Drying Times in Half

Sugar Land, TX-based Pipeline Drying International, LLC, said it has developed new proprietary tools and techniques that, when used in combination with its patented Mobil Drying Units (MDU), can dry compressor stations, meter stations and some vessels faster than anyone else in the industry. The co..

What's New

What's New

An overview of the latest technology that can be used during pipeline construction projects