Operations
Transportation Secretary Appoints 24 Members to Pipeline Safety Working Group
PHMSA appoints 24 to group tasked with improving pipeline inspection information sharing.
‘New World Order’ Re-shaping Natural Gas Storage
As the International Energy Agency (IEA) observed in June, dramatic changes are underway in the world’s natural gas trade. Thanks to shifting demand patterns, suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from producing countries such as the U.S. and Australia increasingly will need to look for new homes..
Quake Near Oklahoma Oil Hub Causes Substantial Damage
CUSHING, Okla. (AP) — A magnitude 5.0 earthquake centered near one of the world’s key oil hubs brought down building facades and shattered windows in a central Oklahoma city, rendering century-old buildings unsafe and raising concerns about key infrastructure. As the sun rose Monday, television new..
Martin Midstream to Sell Corpus Christi Terminal Assets
NuStar Logistics to acquire Martin Midstream's pipeline assets in Corpus Christi.
EQT Midstream Acquires Transmission, Storage and Gathering Assets
EQT Midstream Partners acquired the Allegheny Valley Connector (AVC) transmission and storage system, along with several Marcellus gathering systems from EQT Corporation for $275 million in cash, effective Oct. 1. The assets include 209 miles of transmission pipeline and 11 Bcf of working gas storag..
NiSource Opens Employee Training Center Featuring ‘Mock Town’
MONACA, PA – Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of NiSource, recently opened a modern, centralized training facility for employees who operate and maintain its natural gas distribution system. The $10 million, 22,000-square-foot facility is the first of four leading-edge training centers th..
Michigan Panel that Oversees Pipeline Network to Meet Today
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A state panel that oversees the safety of pipelines carrying oil and other substances around Michigan is meeting Monday. The Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Michigan Agency for Energy building in Lansing. The board is c..
Regulator: Dakota Access Pipeline Worker Killed in Accident
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A man working on the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline was killed in an apparent accident in western North Dakota, a state regulator said Saturday. North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk said the man, whose name has not been released, died of his injuries Frid..
Integrated Corrosion Management of Oil, Gas Installations
Corrosion monitoring of oil and gas installation usually peaks during the operations/production stage, but each stage of the project is (design, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance/shutdown time) is equally important for these facilities. The activities carried out during the design..
New Report Confirms Pipelines Are One of the Safest Ways to Transport Energy
API has released a new report, with the Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL), confirming that pipelines continue to be one of the safest ways to efficiently transport energy across the United States. The report highlights liquid pipeline safety performance and industry-wide efforts to improve pipeli..
Feds Order More Upgrades to Spectra Pipelines After Blast
GREENSBURG, Pa (AP) – A federal agency has ordered a natural gas pipeline company to upgrade three lines buried in western Pennsylvania, including one that has corrosion similar to a fourth line that blew up in April, scorching some 40 acres. The Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration..
Upgrades to Unsafe Tank Cars Could Take 15 Years, Board Says
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Accident-prone tank cars used to haul crude oil and ethanol by rail could remain in service for another 15 years under federal rules that allow companies to phase in upgrades to the aging fleet, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Transportation offici..
Firm: California Spill Went Undetected Due to Pipeline Work
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — The operator of a pipeline that spewed tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into a Southern California ravine said Friday it didn’t detect the leak because the line was undergoing maintenance. Crimson Pipeline said the remotely monitored line was emptied on Wednesday to ..
Cleanup Underway After California Oil Pipeline Spill
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of gallons of crude oil spilled Thursday from a pipeline and flowed down a ravine in Southern California but did not reach the ocean, officials said. As much as 29,400 gallons of oil spilled and flowed a quarter- to half-mile from the spill, fire authorities said. ..
New Pipeline Safety Bill Heads for House Passage; Senate Bill Waiting
Two House committees passed nearly identical pipeline safety bills. Once combined into a single piece of legislation, the House will work with the Senate, which previously passed a bill, to come up with a single version for President Obama’s signature. All three bills pale beside the 2011 pipeline b..
Corrosion Management of Pipelines, Onshore Facilities More Important than Ever
Some pipelines and onshore facilities deteriorate slowly during operation and in certain cases have been reliable for more than their estimated lifetime. Other installations, however, exhaust their useful life after only two to five years of operation. There are numerous factors that affect the lif..
The Downstream Frontline for Integrity Management
Recent news headlines around gas storage incidents highlight the fact that it is not only oil and gas-producing wells that need continuous real-time integrity monitoring to avoid catastrophic leaks. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) most recent forecasts, we can expect a sustaine..
Shell: Pipeline Fixed after California Oil Spill
Officials at Shell Oil Co. say crews have repaired an underground pipeline after it broke and spilled up to 21,000 gallons of oil in rural Northern California. Company spokesman Ray Fisher said Tuesday that workers are running small amounts of oil through the pipeline to test it and are working on ..
Despite Leak, Sempra CEO Gets Hefty Bonus
The same year a broken Sempra Energy storage well created the biggest natural gas leak in U.S. history, CEO Debra Reed earned her largest bonus yet. While Reed received no payout for the part of her 2015 bonus that’s tied to customer satisfaction and pipeline safety at two Sempra utilities, amounti..
Husky Energy to Portion off Midstream Assets for $1.7 Billion
Husky Energy will sell 65% ownership interest in select midstream assets in the Lloydminster region of Alberta and Saskatchewan to Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings and Power Assets Holdings Limited (PAH). Husky, which will remain the operator, will receive $1.7 billion of gross cash proceeds, whi..
Mountaineer NGL Storage Open Season Underway
On April 11, 2016, Mountaineer NGL Storage, LLC began its non-binding open season for up to 1.6 million barrels of initial storage capacity with more than 25,000 bbls per day of load-in and load-out. The Mountaineer NGL Storage Project will provide storage services to a growing number of gas proces..
Bayou Bridge Pipeline Begins Nederland-Lake Charles Operations
Bayou Bridge Pipeline started commercial operations on the 30-inch segment of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline from Nederland, TX, to Lake Charles, LA. The project is owned by subsidiaries of Phillips 66 Partners, Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners. In addition, as a result of successf..
Floridian Natural Gas Storage Announces Non-Binding Open Season for Firm Gas Storage Service
Floridian Natural Gas Storage Company, LLC (FGS) is soliciting non-binding bid proposals from interested parties for a firm liquefaction, storage, and redelivery by vaporization service to a new delivery point through an interconnect with Florida Gas Transmission Company (FGT) at a location at or ne..
House Democrats Seek to Toughen Senate Pipeline Safety Bill
Key Republicans and Democrats in the House were determined to pass a pipeline safety bill this year, although it may have some differences with the bill just passed by the Senate. That bill is called the Securing America’s Future Energy: Protecting Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (S..
PHMSA Cites External Corrosion as Cause of Santa Barbara Spill
External corrosion on a pipeline pumping crude was the root cause of the rupture last May that spilled over 140,000 gallons of oil on the Santa Barbara coast, federal regulators reported. The spill occurred after pumps on the Plains All American Pipeline were shut down and restarted, sending a large..
SoCalGas Finally Able to Plug Leaking Injection Well
A Los Angeles-area injection well was permanently sealed on Feb. 18 and taken out of service, according to Southern California Gas. The leak was temporarily plugged earlier and SoCalGas finished pumping cement into the base of the well. Residents who were relocated to temporary housing because of th..
U.S. Natural Gas Production Reaches Record High in 2015
U.S. natural gas production reached a record high level of 79 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015, an increase of 5% from the previous year, even as natural gas prices remained relatively low. Production from five states—Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and North Dakota—was respon..
Natural Gas Storage Ends Winter Heating Season at Record High
Working natural gas inventories ended the winter heating season at 2,478 billion cubic feet (Bcf), exceeding the previous end-of-March record high of 2,473 Bcf, set in 2012, according to EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. Inventory withdrawals during the traditional heating season (November th..
TransCanada Resumes Oil Shipments Through Keystone Pipeline
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — TransCanada Corp. has resumed sending oil through the Keystone Pipeline after a weeklong shutdown prompted by a leak and oil spill in southeastern South Dakota. The pipeline came back online Sunday, but with a reduced pressure. The company says it is continuing cleanup and ..
Oil Majors Only Replace 75% of Oil and Gas Produced in 2015
The oil majors failed to replace all of the oil and gas reserves that they burned through in 2015, a worrying sign for the industry’s future. The Wall Street Journal reported that the seven largest oil and gas companies only replaced about 75 percent of the reserves on average that they produced la..
- Trump Aims to Revive 1,200-Mile Keystone XL Pipeline Despite Major Challenges
- 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
- Valero Considers All Options, Including Sale, for California Refineries Amid Regulatory Pressure
- U.S. Appeals Court Blocks Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Pipeline Permits
- 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
- Another Major U.S. Oil Refinery Shutting Down as Lyondell Confirms Houston Closure
- Chevron CEO Wirth Under Fire as Hess Deal Delay Drags Down Stock Performance
