February 2023, Vol. 250, No. 2

(P&GJ) — As 2022 drew to a close, news came that one of the more complex pipelines projects ever seen in North America, the Coastal Gaslink project, had eclipsed the 80% completion mark in British Columbia. The project, in combination with the Kitimat LNG plant, is the largest Canadian infrastructure investment since the 1950s when the St. Lawrence Seaway was constructed.

(P&GJ) — LNG is a key enabler of the global transition to a decarbonized energy system. It will play a pivotal role as companies move from coal and oil to cleaner energy sources. LNG remains the only fuel choice available today to meet the energy needs of growing economies at scale. But it’s an extremely competitive market.

(P&GJ) — Hop-scotching around North America in the fall of 2022 turned up varying voices calling for systemic changes in the energy industry that carry impacts from Wall Street to main street, from Canada to Mexico.

(P&GJ) — Oil is still serious business in the Bakken Shale, but when it comes to midstream, the money is on natural gas. As in the Permian Basin, oil production in the Williston has a high rate of associated natural gas. But the Bakken’s residual gas is rich in natural gas liquids (NGLs), and that requires infrastructure generally more akin to North Texas’ Barnett Shale than West Texas’ Permian.

(P&GJ) — The safe movement of liquids and gases across the pipeline infrastructure of the United States is critical. Whether pipelines are delivering fuels for transportation or home energy, feedstocks used to manufacture a wide variety of plastics and specialty chemicals, or any of the myriad other products that keep nations running, pipeline companies must ensure that operation continues without incident 24/7.

(P&GJ) — Construction of the 896-mile (1,443-km) cross-border East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project continues to elicit objections, as well as strong arguments in its favor by the governments of Uganda and Tanzania. The main contentious issues are the possible adverse effects of the project might have climate change, and alleged human rights violations.

(P&GJ) — The American Petroleum Institute (API) published a first-edition document focused on species and habitat conservation for onshore natural gas and oil production facilities that will help boost the industry’s existing practices to enhance environmental performance.

(P&GJ) — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is devoting an increasing amount of attention and staff resources to the evaluation of impacts of interstate natural gas pipeline and LNG terminal projects on environmental justice (EJ) communities (that is, communities with disproportionately large minority and low-income populations).

(P&GJ) — While most of the naphtha is converted to methane, some hydrogen is produced in the steam reformer process, resulting in hydrogen concentrations of up to 10% to 15%. As natural gas utilities around the world look to hydrogen as a potential solution to decarbonization, the decades of experience Hawaii Gas already has with a hydrogen blend provide an insightful study into the performance of equipment using hydrogen blends.

(P&GJ) — Oil, gas, and multi-phase pipelines can be fouled with several types of deposits or internally restrictive debris. The actual type of fouling is dependent upon several factors including: the production fluid characteristics such as hydrocarbon product, water, and gas composition; the presence and composition of common oilfield contaminants, such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, mercury, arsenic, zinc, lead, iron, and manganese and operating conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, pH, flow regimes, etc.).

(P&GJ) — Pigging is an operation that is regularly required by pipeline operators for both cleaning and data collection (intelligent pigging). Managing pigging schedules and risks is a significant challenge to operators/pigging vendors without an intimate knowledge of the pipeline.

(P&GJ) — With oil prices reaching the highest levels in six years, the oil and gas industry is experiencing a windfall. At the same time, geopolitical tensions and bans on imports from Russia have accelerated the move away from oil toward cleaner energy.

(P&GJ) — You get what you inspect, not what you expect. It’s a simple adage but nicely summarizes the value of advanced material inspection, especially in the oil and gas industry.

(P&GJ) — The continued increase in oil and gas output is relying more and more on spoolable reinforced plastic pipe and polyethylene (PE) line pipe. This is due to the high integrity of the pipe itself, and ease of installation. Additionally, PE pipes are easily joined by heat fusion forming a monolithic system that eliminates the potential for leaks at the joints.

People in the News February 2023

Companies in the News February 2023

Associations in the News February 2023

Contracts in the News February 2023

(P&GJ) — Just one year on from establishing a new entity in Australia, pipeline technology specialist STATS Group, is looking forward to a bright future after securing frame agreements with some of the region’s largest Tier 1 operators.

NDT Global presents its OPTIX Data Visualization and Insights Platform, providing pipeline operators with an intuitive, cloud-based dashboard to visualize all inline inspection (ILI) data in one accessible location.

The 135-mile pipeline Gulf Run pipeline, with a capacity of 1.65 Bcf/d, transports gas from the company’s other Energy Transfer pipelines that link to basins in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, running from Westdale to Starks, Louisiana.