Pipeline
Billions of Barrels of Oil Discovered Near London But There's A Catch
A small British oil company has found a bonanza of potentially billions of barrels of oil beneath a field near London’s Gatwick Airport. The only problem is how much of the oil is accessible. UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG) said April 9 that 3,000 feet of exploratory drilling at Wytch Farm in the Weald Basin, a rural area just north of the airport, discovered a “world-class potential resource.” The area is now referred to as “Britain’s Dallas.” It was the deepest well dug in the region in three decades.
Nimble by Nature: Pipeline Market in Transition
In an environment that is exhibiting disruption and change, being nimble is a necessity. The concept of being flexible rather than rigid in the face of change is one that for many industry participants is counterintuitive. Bruce Lee might have said it best when he suggested, “Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
TransCanada Delays Energy East, Reviews Terminal Siting
TransCanada postponed the building of its Energy East pipeline project and decided against building a marine and associated tank terminal in Cacouna, Québec. The company said alternative terminal options are under review, and that Québec and New Brunswick refineries would continue to be connected directly to Energy East.
In the News: Price Declines Lower Tax Revenues in Production States
The Energy Information Administration reported March 12 that the decline in spot oil prices in the last half of 2014 and first month of 2015 has reduced oil and natural gas production tax revenues in some of the largest oil- and natural gas-producing states.
Can Shale Formations Enable U.S. to Become Oil Exporter?
In recent years, the technological advances in recovering hydrocarbons trapped in tight formations, like shale, using unconventional drilling methods (horizontal drilling in conjunction with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing) have made U.S. oil production grow dramatically.
Crude Oil Export Ban: Dated Policy with Real-Life Implications
If you are lucky enough to have grown up in Texas, you are all too familiar with how popular culture, particularly Hollywood, has glamorized the life of a wildcatter or roughneck. The movie Giant depicts James Dean on a windswept Texas countryside, sopping head to toe in newly discovered oil. While maybe a compelling drama, as a Texas Railroad Commissioner, I can tell you this is far from reality.
Texas Permiting Rules Post-Denbury Green
The Texas Railroad Commission adopted new rules in December concerning pipeline permit applications involving 16 Texas Administrative Code §3.70. It has been three years since the state Supreme Court’s opinion in Denbury Green, which took a dim view of the commission’s “check the box” rules regarding Form T-4 pipeline permit application which automatically created common carrier status to the pipeline operator.
Falling Oil Prices Exert Influence on Utility Construction
The free-falling oil price caught many observers off guard. Historically, crude oil and natural gas prices tend to stay in alignment as the imbedded energy content is the defining characteristic. Since 2010, when the price of these commodities separated, many observers anticipated upward volatility in the price of gas to realign it with the price of oil. Few analysts anticipated oil falling to realign with low-cost natural gas.
Forget About Keystone XL Canadian Crude Is Coming
While Congress and the White House continue to wrangle over the Keystone XL pipeline extension, the oil industry is taking matters into its own hands. Markets are primed for an influx of Canadian crude oil, but with pipeline transport off the table for the foreseeable future, producers have built alternative modes to meet the demand. The problem is, recent disasters have soured legislators and environmentalists on road and rail for moving oil.
Pipeline Moving Canadian Crude to Gulf Coast Refineries Starts
Crude from the Canadian oil sands deposits gained an additional major outlet in the U.S. when the joint venture of Enbridge, Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. completed construction of its Cushing-to-Texas pipeline and started deliveries in December to Gulf Coast refineries. The new pipeline’s operations and routes are very similar to TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline project for bringing oil sands crude to the Gulf Coast.
EnLink Landman Follows Family Tradition
Recently EnLink Midstream invited me out to West Texas to see my first pipeline spread – the Martin County Extension Pipeline. On the way to the line we stopped by the Deadwood gas plant where I met Chris Coleman, EnLink Midstream’s senior landman. He was amiable, genuine and welcoming, even letting me ride shotgun in his work truck, which I had to jump to get into. As we drove across the flat Texas land, kicking up a flurry of red dirt, he began telling me about his job.
Cathodic Shielding Effects Tested: PipePillo vs. Foam
Perhaps one of the most important safe guards put in place to maintain the long-term integrity of buried pipelines is a cathodic protection system. Cathodic protection (CP) is an anti- corrosion technique used to prevent the corrosion of metals such as steel and iron in electrolytically conducting environments such as seawater and soils containing water.
Wood Mackenzie: Oil Market Concerns Inescapable in 2015
Global consulting company Wood Mackenzie has drawn on the knowledge and expertise of senior analysts in compiling a new report, Horizons: What To Look For In 2015. In discussing the report, Paul McConnell, principal analyst for Global Trends at Wood Mackenzie, pointed out that oil market concerns will be inescapable in 2015. “With no sign that OPEC is reconsidering its decision to leave production targets unchanged, the impetus falls on non-OPEC producers to limit supply growth and bring the market back into balance,” he said.
Latest Price Shock Offers Some Midstream Bright Spots
The price of oil may have fallen to its lowest level in six years, but this “price shock” is different than the 2008-’09 variety, according to analysts at Pace Global. “The current low-price situation is likely to persist for several years unless geopolitical events shift the market psychology from one of surplus to one of shortage,” Jim Diemer, vice president and head Pace Global-Siemens’ Energy Consulting Company, told PG&J.
Boom Increases Contractors Earth-Moving Business
With a name like Steele in Pennsylvania, you’d expect Steele Construction, Inc. owner Bill Steele to specialize in structural steel building or own a foundry. Instead, he’s one of the premier builders of timber-framed homes in the state. As things changed and housing starts dipped during the recession beginning in 2007, Steele expanded his business on the strength of the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom. “We were lucky enough to get into a gas contract, and now our company is pretty much evenly split between the building of heavy timber frame and moving dirt,” said Steele.
Newsreel: Northeast Utilities Becomes Eversource Energy
Northeast Utilities, which operates New England’s largest energy delivery company, has become Eversource Energy. All of the company’s subsidiaries, including Connecticut Light and Power Co., NSTAR Electric, NSTAR Gas, Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, Western Massachusetts Electric Co. and Yankee Gas Services Co. have begun operating under the Eversource brand. The company serves more than 3.6 million electric and natural gas customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and employing a workforce of more than 8,000 New Englanders.
Editors Notebook: The Silver Lining Pipelines Work
You already know that Houston is the energy capital of the nation, most likely the world. But did you know that Houston is also the violent bank robbery capital of the nation with no close second?
Russias Pipeline Dreams Under Threat
Russia is the second-largest producer of dry natural gas and the third-largest liquid fuels producer in the world, and these products are inextricably intertwined with its government. State-controlled company Rosneft dominates oil production while Transneft owns and operates Russia’s oil pipelines. Gazprom is the country’s dominant gas producer and pipeline operator, and the Ministry of Finance admitted in February that oil and gas royalties, taxes and dividends account for at least 50% of the Russian government’s revenue.
Study: Mariner East To Add $4.2 Billion To Pennsylvania Economy
Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East projects are expected to add up to $4.2 billion to Pennsylvania’s economy and create 300-400 permanent jobs, according to a study by Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions, Inc. released Feb. 5. Commissioned by Sunoco Logistics, the economic forecast projected construction of the projects will generate $23 million in personal income tax in the state, as well bringing in $62 million in tax revenues from vendors, employees and related activities.
Pipeline Stress Corrosion Cracking: Detection and Control
Corrosion of underground natural gas and liquid petroleum pipelines occurs in a variety of forms and requires specialized mitigation methods to detect and control. First identified in the 1960s, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a form of corrosion that results in clusters or colonies of cracks on the external surface of the affected pipeline.
SENER Consortium Delivers Compressor Stations For Mexico Transport System
SENER, in consortium with the company Bonatti, has delivered two compression stations that comprise the Los Ramones 1 Transport System in Mexico to Gasoductos del Noreste.
Enbridge plans Gulf Of Mexico pipeline
Enbridge and upstream partners at Hess Corp. are working to develop a pipeline from a Gulf of Mexico oil field. Enbridge said it will build, own and operate the $130 million system that will start in the deepwater Stampede project and end 16 miles away with a connection to a third-party pipeline system.
Poplar spill fueling worries about Dakota Access; replacement announced
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A pipeline oil spill in Montana that contaminated a river and a city's drinking water supply is adding to fears about a proposed pipeline to carry oil from western North Dakota to a terminal in Illinois for distribution to refineries in eastern states.
Meritage Midstream Announces NGL Pipeline Extension
Meritage Midstream has begun operations on the first leg of the 108-mile Thunder Creek NGL Pipeline. The pipeline will be owned and operated by Thunder Creek NGL Pipeline, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Meritage.
Ohio River Valley Plans Condensate Pipeline In Ohio
Ohio River Valley Pipeline, LLC, an affiliate of the EnLink Midstream companies, EnLink Midstream Partners, LP and EnLink Midstream, LLC (the general partner), held a binding open season for volume commitments for interstate common carrier transportation service on the ORV Condensate Pipeline.
Eastring Pipeline Eustreams Alternative Solution To South Stream Pipeline
Reuters reports Slovak gas pipeline operator Eustream is proposing a new pipeline be built to carry natural gas from western Europe to the Balkans, relieving the region of its almost total dependence on Russian supply.
Tennessee Gas Adopts Two Alternative Routes For Proposed NED Project
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (TGP), a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, Inc., is adopting two alternative routes for its proposed Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project to minimize environmental impact and allow for expansion of natural gas service in New Hampshire. Following a thorough evaluation of feasible route alternatives for the market path of the project from Wright, NY to Dracut, MA, the company planned to submit an amended resource report filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in December.
Union Gas Holds Binding Open Season
Canada’s Union Gas is holding a binding open season for incremental firm capacity of up to 650,000 GJ/d beginning in 2017 and an additional 550,000 GJ/d in 2018 along the following transportation paths: (a) Dawn to Parkway; (b) Dawn to Kirkwall; and (c) Kirkwall to Parkway.
Southeast Asias Pipeline Challenges
Southeast Asia is considered one of the most problematic regions of the world in which to build pipelines since it encompasses active volcanos and thousands of islands. With a large land area of 4.46 million square kilometers and many countries, it is home to 616 million people, 150 million of whom have no access to electricity.
Medallion Begins Construction Of Midkiff Lateral And Wolfcamp Connector Expansion Projects
Based on binding capacity bids from prospective shippers during the open season, Medallion Midstream’s subsidiary, Medallion Pipeline Company, LLC, has executed long-term Transportation Service Agreements to provide capacity commitments sufficient for construction of the Midkiff Lateral and the Wolfcamp Connector Expansion projects on a schedule that is expected to place both in service by spring.
- Williams' $1 Billion Gas Pipeline Blocked by U.S. Appeals Court, Derailing Five-State Project
- Texas Waha Hub Gas Prices Plunge to Record Lows, Hit Negative Territory
- U.S. Buys Nearly 5 Million Barrels of Oil for Emergency Stockpile
- U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down Controversial Biden Pipeline Safety Rules
- Texas Oil Pipelines Near Max Capacity, Threatening Future Export Limits
- Report: Houston Region Poised to Become a Global Clean Hydrogen Hub
- Exxon Mobil to Start Gas Reserve Seismic Surveys in Greece
- LaPorte, Texas, Issues Shelter in Place After Altivia Plant Leaks Toxic Gas
- Texas Startup Endeavors Again to Build First Major U.S. Oil Refinery Since 1977
- Mid-Year Global Forecast: Midstream Responding to Demand from LNG Projects
