Environment
Distribution Delivers Innovation To Pipeline Replacement Prioritization
Ian Davidson, member of Parliament: “Let me be clear. If the [natural gas distribution] companies find themselves in a position where the number of health and safety breaches is increasing, a plausible defense for them is to say that they cannot afford to do it because you are squeezing them too tightly.”
Study Finds Fracking Not At Fault For Water Contamination
A study has pinpointed the likely source of most natural gas contamination in drinking-water wells associated with hydraulic fracturing, and it’s not the source many people may have feared. What’s more, the problem may be fixable: improved construction standards for cement well linings and casings at hydraulic fracturing sites.
Changes At Federal Pipeline Regulatory Agencies
One top federal pipeline regulator left her job and a prominent state regulator is coming to Washington to fill a second high-profile pipeline job. Cynthia Quarterman left as administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Oct. 3. No replacement has been named. Meanwhile, the White House nominated Colette Honorable as a commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). When confirmed, which is likely, she would probably be appointed chairman. Honorable is chair of the Public Service Commission in Arkansas.
PG&E, others appeal $1.4 billion penalty
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and others on Thursday appealed a proposed $1.4 billion penalty against PG&E in a deadly 2010 gas-pipeline explosion, in a case that has raised repeated accusations of cozy relations between the utility and state regulators.
Mother Earth: At The Center Of The Shale Revolution
When global business consulting giant Accenture finished a recent treatise on shale oil and natural gas development, it identified eight key factors needed to make exploitation of shale viable, and the first three are found in abundance in successful U.S. shale plays from North Dakota’s Bakken to Texas’ Eagle Ford. They are geology, land considerations and the existence of an unconventional energy resource service sector.
Editor's Notebook: Making A Comeback
$3.25. Remember that number. These days I avoid watching the evening news. ISIS, Ebola, Ukraine, Putin, Iraq, Gaza, Boko Haram, the Khorasan Group, Ferguson, etc. Some days I wish I could just stay in bed.
Traceability: A Technology, Requirement And Future For Pipelines
<em>“The overriding lesson: great software can fail if it is not paired with industry expertise.” – Brett Vogt, Project Consulting Services, Inc. </em> Whether they are people, places or things, there is nothing that can escape electronic scrutiny in the 21st century, pipelines included. With the right planning, personnel and software systems, both industry and government representatives agree that the tools are in place to maintain control and complete records for the North American, if the not the world’s, oil and natural gas pipelines.
EDF/Google Earth Outreach Map Gas Leaks Under City Streets
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recently unveiled interactive online maps showing natural gas leaks beneath the streets of Boston, Indianapolis and New York City’s Staten Island. Leaks like these rarely pose an immediate safety threat, but the leaking natural gas – which is mostly methane – has a powerful effect on the global climate, carrying 120 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.
Best Estimates: Developing New Quantification Protocol For Methane Emissions Reduction
Aggressive efforts are underway to reduce methane emissions from the natural gas sector and the industry is working on technologies and approaches for mitigating emissions. But it also must improve the way emissions are quantified. By establishing reasonable baselines, utilities will be able to provide more accurate reports about their emissions profiles and implement mitigation and reduction programs. GTI and its industry partners are working to update those baselines now.
FERC Commissioner Concerned About Pipeline Adequacy In Face Of Utility Carbon Restrictions
There is at least one raised eyebrow at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan, the subject of a proposed rule issued on June 2. The plan would force electric utilities to reduce carbon emissions to advance President Obama's Climate Action Plan, which seeks to lower air emissions of the six greenhouse gases, of which carbon dioxide is the major member. The plan foresees individual states devising separate, and perhaps different, plans for reducing carbon emissions from electric utilities.
Workplace Air Quality In Welding, Fabrication Environment
Welding and fabrication generate lots of heat, dust and fumes that carry hazardous substances. If air quality is not controlled, these often carcinogenic and toxic substances can lead to serious illness. Obviously, suitable systems to air quality at acceptable levels are needed.
Chinese Pipeline Damaged, 20,000 Evacuated
A leaking oil pipeline caught fire in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian on July 1, forcing the evacuation of nearly 20,000 residents. According to press reports, the pipeline was damaged by construction work, allowing oil to flow into a sewage pipe, and catch fire. No deaths or injuries were reported. However, China National Petroleum Corp. reported 20,000 nearby residents had to be evacuated.
NAESB Group Moves To Respond To FERCs Gas-Electric Coordination Proposal
In a meeting held in Houston on April 22-23, NAESB’s Gas-Electric Harmonization (GEH) Forum continued its efforts to forge a consensus of natural gas and electric industry stakeholders in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on gas-electric coordination announced by FERC on March 20. (Docket No. RM14-2-000, available at http://tinyurl.com/mleskru.)
Protecting Our Water Keep Chemicals In The Tank
Recent events in West Virginia have shown that our water supply is in jeopardy of contamination from leaks or overfills of storage and processing tanks (Figure 1) at chemical, petroleum and water/wastewater facilities.
Editor's Notebook: North Dakota Making News
I’ve never been to North Dakota; in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone from that state. Now, one of the great oil discoveries of recent years, the immense Bakken Shale, has put the upper Plains state on the map for all to see.
Sharing Challenges In The Eagle Ford Shale
Like most stories about Texas, the one that’s being written in the Eagle Ford shale is full of big dreams, big dollars, and big results. The play itself is huge, covering an area of 20,000 square miles, it spans 25 south-central Texas counties and is roughly the size of Croatia. Capital expenditures there by energy companies are sky-high, reaching $28 billion through the end of 2013, if predictions by global consultants Wood Mackenzie held true.
PHMSA's Attention To Pipeline Safety Becomes Issue
Pipeline safety is back on the congressional agenda, in part because of a recent Department of Transportation Inspector General's report, in part because of PHMSA'S failure to finish rulemakings mandated by the 2011 pipeline safety bill. PHMSA's foot-dragging has irritated the industry and the major pipeline safety advocacy group equally.
Porous Material Polymerizes Carbon Dioxide At Natural Gas Wellheads
Rice University scientists have created an earth-friendly way to separate carbon dioxide from natural gas at wellheads. A porous material invented by the Rice laboratory of chemist James Tour sequesters carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, at ambient temperature – with pressure provided by the wellhead – and lets it go once the pressure is released. The material shows promise as a replacement for more costly and energy-intensive processes.
Wireless I/O Communication Solutions For Hazardous Environments
In 2010, an incident in San Bruno, CA brought national attention to the oil and gas industry when a natural gas pipeline exploded in a residential neighborhood, leveling homes and claiming several lives. The resulting shockwave from the explosion was equivalent to a 1.1 magnitude earthquake.
Safety Deeply Embedded In Pipeline, Hazardous Transport Oversight
In 2010, two tragic events – a million-gallon crude oil spill near Marshall, MI and a natural gas explosion in a San Bruno, CA neighborhood – occurred within two weeks of each other, focusing the nation’s attention on pipeline safety.
Greenhouse Gas Intensity Of Average Crude Refined In U.S. Unchanged by Growth Of Oil Sands Imports
The growth in U.S. imports of Canadian oil sands in recent years has not impacted the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of the U.S. supply mix, according to a new study by IHS, a leading global source of critical information and insight. The growth of oil sands imports were offset by substitution for similar sources of supply and by increase in lower-carbon tight oil displacing relatively higher carbon imports from Africa and elsewhere, the study says.
Flexibility, Ingenuity And Patience Bring Gas To Gotham
Spectra Energy’s 20-mile expansion of the Texas Eastern and Algonquin Gas Transmission pipelines from Linden, NJ to Manhattan cost $60 million per mile, but the money is just the beginning.
Investment Incentives Must Grow With Capacity Demand
Despite vast U.S. shale gas resources and technological advances making recovery economically feasible, an absence of incentives supporting the usual investment model in which a company builds, owns and operates new pipelines – supported by long-term contracts for capacity – is hampering construction.
Underused Strategies To Keep Pipelines Running Strong
Compressor stations are the unsung heroes of the pipeline and gas industry. Given the media hype lately, the public’s focus has been driven primarily to the extraction and refining components of the energy equation with little notice paid to the engines – literally – that transfer products from one end of the country to the other.
Helping Operators Comply With New IVP Regulations
Last summer the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) previewed proposed additions to its integrity management program (IMP) which require operators to test pipe segments located in high-consequence areas (HCAs) and to “devote additional focus, efforts, and analysis … to ensure the integrity of [those] pipelines.”
Breaking Down Quad-O Regulations, Compliance Needs
Just as onshore production methods change and evolve over time, so too do environmental regulations. On Aug. 16, 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published final regulatory updates specific to onshore oil and natural gas production that span from well completion to transmission. Deciphering and gaining a better understanding of these regulations will remove costly compliance pitfalls during normal operations.
Operators See Bumpy Road Ahead, Despite $640 Billion Demand For Midstream Infrastructure
Faced with a study projecting that the pipeline industry will need an average of $30 billion per year worth of new infrastructure to satisfy oil, gas and liquids transportation needs between 2014 and 2035, pipeline operators foresee struggle and risk as well as opportunity.
Kinder Morgan Set To Expand CO2 Footprint In Southwestern Colorado And New Mexico
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. will invest $671 million to grow its CO-2 infrastructure in southwestern Colorado and New Mexico.
Federal Court Ruling On Mercury Revives Gas-Electric Worries
A federal court decision allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move forward with a rule limiting mercury emissions from power plants has heightened concerns in some quarters about interstate pipeline infrastructure inadequacy.
PHMSA Shifts Emphasis Toward Preventing Highest Risk Events
Pipeline integrity management is a hot topic. Pipeline failures, while statistically rare, can be catastrophic and have captured attention as never before. Risk tolerance for pipeline failures from existing pipelines is very low, and getting lower.
- Phillips 66 to Shut LA Oil Refinery, Ending Major Gasoline Output Amid Supply Concerns
- FERC Sides with Williams in Texas-Louisiana Pipeline Dispute with Energy Transfer
- U.S. Appeals Court Blocks Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Pipeline Permits
- ConocoPhillips Eyes Sale of $1 Billion Permian Assets Amid Marathon Acquisition
- Valero Considers All Options, Including Sale, for California Refineries Amid Regulatory Pressure
- U.S. Appeals Court Blocks Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Pipeline Permits
- Malaysia’s Oil Exports to China Surge Amid Broader Import Decline
- U.S. LNG Export Growth Faces Uncertainty as Trump’s Tariff Proposal Looms, Analysts Say
- Marathon Oil to Lay Off Over 500 Texas Workers Ahead of ConocoPhillips Merger
- Valero Considers All Options, Including Sale, for California Refineries Amid Regulatory Pressure
