July 2022, Vol. 249, No. 7

With much of the world shunning Russian energy as prices surge, the resulting systematic upheaval in dynamics has the potential to alter oil and gas supply trends and trade partnerships for years to come.

Some key decisions about federal pipeline regulation are coming to a head as the comment period for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) two draft policy statements closed and the Senate decides whether to renew Richard Glick’s chairmanship at FERC.

Despite Biden’s commitment to get more U.S. LNG to Europe, environmental groups are trying to convince FERC to slow or kill export LNG facilities and pipelines that serve them on mostly environmental grounds.

The need to regulate the more than 425,000 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines throughout the United States for the first time stems from more than governmental fiat. It is tied to the transformation of the energy industry in the 21st century and the pipelines that supply increasingly complex markets.

A new gas gathering rule, issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), expands safety oversight to all onshore gas-gathering pipelines, with the intent to make all processes associated with pipelines safer.

South Africa’s drive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 would require huge investments in a phased fuel switch by industrial and domestic consumers, which could diversely impact the country’s pipeline market.

Kentucky and Pennsylvania have several areas within their borders susceptible to karst formations, including sinkholes and surface depressions. These states also have substantial resources available for pipeline companies to review when attempting to identify locales with sinkholes as well as areas that are prone to karst formations.

To successfully procure the materials needed for a new pipeline system, engineering professionals must have the technical experience, logistical knowledge and organizational systems in place to support the project’s needs.

Carbon steel has been used for over a century as the standard material for pipelines. Throughout that time, countless new techniques and improvements have been made so much so that new pipelines laid today share almost nothing with their ancestors beyond shape.

It may surprise some who have had contentious relationships with the Corps of Engineers over project permits, but Corps professionals take no delight in pointing out deficiencies within an application.

When a small group of pipeline operators at a conference realized they were each experiencing brittle cracks in their pipelines, they also realized the power of collaboration. Within two short years of pooling resources and research, a solution presented itself to end the decades-long issue.

Maintaining safe, reliable and profitable pipeline operations requires a high degree of trust. This is especially true for remote users who must have faith that the conditions are safe and that the person or device requesting the operation has authorization to do so.

There is increased pressure for pipeline operators to improve efficiencies, reliability and safety. One way these demands can be achieved, which is widely regarded as the way forward, is digitalization – whereby digital technologies seamlessly connect to advance processes throughout an organization.

The United States and many other countries have set goals to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. To achieve this end, entire economies will need to be decarbonized.

The industry-accepted lost and unaccounted for (LAUF) natural gas storage, processing and transportation averages 0.40% of throughput. LAUF is driven by myriad factors, including pneumatic device integrity and venting, but it is dominated by persistent measurement errors.

In the first quarter of 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved three projects intended to increase U.S. natural gas exports via pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In January 2022, natural gas consumed for electric power in the United States averaged 31.6 Bcf/d (895 MMcm/d), the highest January average on record and the highest amount for any winter month.

Full encirclement steel sleeves have been a popular repair solution for more than a century and are widely used by pipeline operators.

Vaca Muerta Gas Pipeline Targets 25% Capacity Growth, Much-Delayed Iran-Oman Pipeline Project Back on Track, 105-Mile Genesis Deep-Water Pipeline Expected by 2025, UGI to Fully Fund for RNG Projects in South Dakota, Nigeria On Board with Morocco-to-Europe Gas Pipeline and more.

IMA Materialforschung und Anwendungstechnik GmbH (IMA) boosted its testing capabilities with an all-digital measurement and control chain that automates shell testing.

DNV, an assurance provider, has been asked by NET4GAS, the international gas transmission system operator based in the Czech Republic, to evaluate the hydrogen suitability of an existing DN 1400 pressure natural gas transmission pipeline and related stations.

Endress, Trimble, Honeywell, Sensor Networks, Dinkle, Juniper, ROSEN and more.

People in the News July 2022

Companies in the News July 2022

Associations in the News July 2022