Integrity
Company Blamed for 31-Acre Sinkhole Sues Oil Company
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The company blamed for a 31-acre sinkhole that forced 350 rural Louisiana residents out of their homes has sued Occidental Petroleum Corp., claiming that negligent drilling and production contributed to the damage. Texas Brine Co. said Occidental and Oxy USA Inc. should have to cover more than $100 million in damages that Texas Brine has paid or will have to pay. Occidental did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Assumption Parish.
Latest in Pressure Cycle Induced Fatigue Crack Growth Modeling
Recent high-profile pipeline incidents have increased awareness of integrity threats associated with legacy seam-welded pipe. Additionally, expectations from the public, regulators and pipeline operators to effectively manage these threats have increased. Pipeline operators use guidance published in PHMSA’s TT05 – Low Frequency ERW and Lap Welded Longitudinal Seam Evaluation– to model the effect of pressure cycle-induced fatigue on the growth of crack flaws to determine the optimum integrity re-assessment date prior to their growth to a critical level.
DOEs Gant: Shifting Energy Policy to Stewardship of Abundance
Although we are already 15 years deep into the 21st century and women working at the top rungs of professional life no longer turn heads, when it comes to the “hard” numbers-crunching parts in the global economy – science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) – women still get asked why they selected this way to earn a buck. This same question is occasionally put to Paula Gant, holder of a doctorate degree in economics and the deputy assistant secretary for oil and natural gas in the federal Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy.
Administration Proposes More Safety Valves for Gas Lines
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Obama administration moved Wednesday to significantly expand a requirement for utilities to install inexpensive safety valves on gas lines across the nation following deadly fires and explosions going back decades that officials and safety advocates said could have been avoided. The Transportation Department proposal would cover new or replaced natural gas lines serving multi-family dwellings, small businesses and homes not already covered under a 2009 mandate.
Step-Ko Products is an Up and Comer
Founded in 2000, Step-Ko Products, LLC is a global provider of corrosion protective products, with sales in over 42 countries. The Broussard, LA-company promotes flange protection products, pipeline corrosion protection, insulated enclosures, and pipeline markers for industrial and oil and gas applications. Step-Ko Products was certified in the Small & Emerging Business Development Program in 2012 and has worked with LSBDC at UL Lafayette in receiving assistance with website development and industry specific software training.
Gulf States Reach $18.7 Billion Settlement with BP over Oil Spill
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officials in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana announced an $18.7 billion settlement with BP on Thursday that resolves years of litigation over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The settlement announcement comes as a federal judge was preparing to rule on how much BP owed in federal Clean Water Act penalties after millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf. Individual states also were pursuing litigation. Most of those penalties were to be distributed among the states for environmental and economic restoration projects along the Gulf Coast.
California Oil Spill Gushed Like Hose 'Without a Nozzle'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters investigating a reported petroleum stench at a California beach last month didn't take long to find a spill — oil was spreading across the sand and into the surf. Tracing the source, they found crude gushing from a bluff like a fire hose "without a nozzle," records show.
Latest DOE Report Slams Canadas Oil Sands
Oil from Canada’s oil sands is about 20% more carbon-intensive on average than crude from elsewhere. That is the damming conclusion from a forthcoming new study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and its partners. The study looked at a wells-to-wheels analysis, which takes into account greenhouse gas emissions along the entire supply chain, from extraction to transit, refining, and finally combustion by the end user.
PHMSA: Pipeline Operator Couldn't Reach Staff at California Spill Site
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As thousands of gallons of crude oil from a ruptured pipeline spread along the California coast, its operator was unable to contact workers near the break to get information required to alert federal emergency officials, records released Wednesday said. Personnel for Plains All American Pipeline needed the precise location of the May 19 spill and an estimate of its size before notifying the National Response Center, a clearinghouse for reports of hazardous-material releases, according to federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration documents.
External Corrosion Mapping, Anomaly Assessment Using Eddy Currents
Evaluating pipeline anomalies remains a vital task in the pipeline industry. Properly identifying, assessing, and repairing defects is crucial in ensuring public and environmental safety. Recent technological advancements have automated this process and drastically increased its overall efficiency.
Photos of Ruptured West Coast Pipeline Offer Clues of Reason for Leak
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Photos of the pipeline that spilled oil on the Santa Barbara coast show extensive corrosion and provide clues about the cause of the rupture, experts said. Corrosion visible around the crack, coupled with wear documented inside the pipe, led Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, to believe the pipe burst during a pressure spike when the operator restarted pumps that had failed the morning of the May 19 spill.
Oil, Gas Operators Managing Risks When Energy Prices are Down
Today, let’s imagine that we are a company producing oil and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale, the Permian Basin, and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado. We own and operate well pads, pipelines flowing from wells to facilities treating those flows, and bigger pipelines which take our products to sales points and “ring the cash register.”
California Oil Spill Cleanup Cost Reaches $62 Million
GOLETA, CA — The cost of cleaning up the oil spill that fouled beaches last month on the California coast has reached $62 million so far, pipeline company Plains All American Pipeline said Wednesday. Costs are running at $3 million a day, and there is no timetable for when the cleanup will be complete, the company's on-scene coordinator, Patrick Hodgins, told The Associated Press. The Plains All American is responsible for footing the bill after a pipeline break near Santa Barbara forced the closure of two state beaches and prompted a fishing ban in the area.
Developing Engineering-Based Integrity Programs for Pipelines, Plants
Integrity assessment has always been a part of operations and maintenance activities. As plant piping and pipeline infrastructure has aged, industry first developed basic tools, and as their importance became apparent, these tools improved to meet those increasing needs.
ShawCor Back at Work on South Stream Offshore Pipeline
ShawCor's Bredero Shaw pipe-coating division has been notified the work suspension on its contract with Europipe for the concrete weight coating of Line 1 of the South Stream Pipeline has been lifted. In December 2014, ShawCor announced suspension of the majority of work on its $100 million pipeline contracts with Europipe and with Marubeni Sumitomo Consortium and with Saipem SpA, a contract valued at about $30 million.
PG&E Completes Cast-Iron Replacement, Earns Safety Certifications
Since Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) finished replacing all 835 miles of cast-iron pipeline in its system ahead of its 2014 year-end goal, the company has turned its attention to further modernizing its infrastructure with the latest gas-safety technology and by building a skilled workforce. The decommissioning of cast-iron pipe, which began in 1985, covered enough distance to run from Seattle to San Francisco, and has been followed by implementation of one of the most comprehensive modernization programs in the nation.
Pipeline Firm Told California Oil Spill 'Extremely Unlikely'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Texas company whose ruptured pipeline created the largest coastal oil spill in California in 25 years had assured the government that a break in the line while possible was "extremely unlikely" and state-of-the-art monitoring could quickly detect possible leaks and alert operators, documents show. Nearly 1,200 pages of records, filed with state regulators by Plains All American Pipeline, detail a range of defenses the company established to guard against crude oil spills and, at the same time, prepare for the worst should a spill occur.
EPA: No widespread Harm to Drinking Water from Fracking
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and natural gas has not caused widespread harm to drinking water in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday in a report that also warned of potential contamination of water supplies if safeguards are not maintained.
Ruptured Santa Barbara Pipeline Badly Corroded, Report Says
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A pipeline rupture that spilled an estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil near Santa Barbara last month occurred along a badly corroded section that had worn away to a fraction of an inch in thickness, according to federal regulators. The preliminary findings released Wednesday by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration point to a possible cause of the May 19 spill that blackened popular beaches and created a 9-mile slick in the Pacific Ocean.
Wood Group CEO Puts Core Values to Work
Bob Keiller, CEO of Wood Group, knows that merely speaking of an organization’s core values is not even worth talking or writing about it unless you put it into practice. Even before he was named to head the global energy service company in November 2012 the native Scotsman has always made sure that any who works for him knows that THE core value in the energy industry starts with one word: safety. After all, if you’re a real people person, what is more important than ensuring that your employees work in the safest environment possible?
Cybersecurity 2015: Connected Pipelines and Proliferation of Threats to Infrastructure
On Aug. 5, 2008, the 1,099-mile-long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which is frequently used by many of the world’s largest oil and gas companies to transport crude oil across Europe, exploded outside of Refahiye, Turkey. Shortly after the incident, the ethnic group, known in Western Asia as Kurdish separatists, claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Role of Quality Management System in Project Completion
Quality is critical and the most important factor for completion of a project on time and within the allocated budget. If proper quality checks are not in place, defective materials or work may cause damage to equipment and facilities, and potentially resulting in health and safety hazards. Successful projects are those that meet business requirements and are delivered on schedule. Many factors contribute to a project’s success such as project planning, resource allocation, risk management and governance criteria, but effective quality management is critical for any project success.
Containment System for Deepwater Gulf Wells
Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) recently delivered its Expanded Containment System (ECS), designed for well-containment capabilities and response readiness for operators in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The enhanced system builds on the equipment and technology put into place with MWCC’s Interim Containment System, made available in February 2011.
PHMSA Wants to Extend New Integrity Verification Program to Hazardous Liquid Pipelines
Hazardous liquid pipelines are unhappy with how the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) wants to implement a provision of the 2011 pipeline safety law requiring companies to go back and test old steel pipelines for integrity.
What's New: April 2015
What's new from Rotork, Ajax TOCCO, Crest Industrial, Transducers Direct, Tulsa Rig Iron and more.
Big Bully Busicks Mantra: Know Safety, No Accidents
Nick “Big Bully” Busick knows something about safety. In fact, he knows a lot about safety. You don’t step into the ring against the likes of the legendary Abdullah the Butcher without knowing how to keep yourself safe or you won’t survive 10 seconds against someone like the 400-pound madman from Sudan, who has torn apart more than one opponent’s face with his teeth, a pencil or whatever his favorite foreign object of the moment happens to be.
Growing PRCI Membership Tackles Inline Inspection, Regulatory Concerns
Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI), which has led the drive for more reliable pipeline technologies since 1952, recently selected new research projects to fund for the coming year. In an energy environment increasingly focused on safety and driven by regulatory concerns, its members chose to concentrate on improving inline inspection (ILI), preventing third-party intrusions along rights-of-way and compiling data that could enable changes from the EPA over compressor pump regulations.
Use of Ultrasonics for Measuring Sludge, Sediment Levels
In 2013, SGS PfiNDE received a call from a client pipeline company which transports a light hydrocarbon product with entrained particulate and sediment through a 150-mile section of pipeline in Minnesota. The company encountered a challenge when, after cleaning the first 20-mile section of the pipeline, the cleaning tool became blocked by, what was determined to be, the excessive buildup of sediment in front of the cleaning tool. Due to the large amount of sediment in this particular line, the tool had gathered enough sludge to completely stop any further progress of the cleaning pig.
Developing Crack Size Detection Criteria for Unpiggable Gas Pipelines
NYSEARCH/Northeast Gas Association (NGA) and development partner Invodane Engineering have introduced the Explorer series of robotic internal inspection platforms and sensors which can perform integrity assessments on natural gas pipelines now incapable of using conventional inline inspection (ILI) technology. The commercial partner on the project is Pipetel Technologies Inc.
Pipeline Integrity: Its An Imperative, Not A Choice
The late 19th century’s most brilliant businessman, J.D. Rockefeller, was an oil tycoon who discovered that the best way to take advantage of his country’s growing thirst for oil was to control distribution. Although the pipeline that Rockefeller built in the 1870s wouldn’t look like much compared to today’s sophisticated pipeline networks, it was an engineering feat that helped his company ensure oil got to the clients who needed it most.
- Freeport LNG Plant Runs Near Zero Consumption for Fifth Day
- Biden Administration Buys Oil for Emergency Reserve Above Target Price
- Mexico Seizes Air Liquide's Hydrogen Plant at Pemex Refinery
- Kinder Morgan Declares Force Majeure on West Texas Gas Pipeline After Fire
- Enbridge Picks Contractors for Great Lakes Tunnel Project, Securing Line 5 Pipeline Route
- Pipeline Hydro Test Pressure Determination
- Venezuela Proposes Alternative Payment Plan as Weak Bids Surface in Citgo Auction
- Baker Hughes Wins Contract for Huge Aramco Gas Expansion Project
- Japan Looks at Developing Domestic Pipelines Sector
- Enbridge Picks Contractors for Great Lakes Tunnel Project, Securing Line 5 Pipeline Route
