Technology/R&D
The Spectrum Disconnect At The FCC
Which of the following statements best reflects the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) view of spectrum requirements in the energy industry?
Phillips 66 To Develop LPG Terminal Off Texas
Phillips 66 plans to develop an LPG export terminal in Freeport, TX. The new terminal is intended to help meet growing global market demand for U.S.-supplied products.
Buckeye Planning To Buy 20 LP Terminals
Buckeye Partners, L.P. has signed a definitive agreement with Hess Corporation and its subsidiaries to acquire 20 liquid petroleum products terminals with total storage capacity of 39 million barrels for $850 million.
Rotork Gears Completes Contract With Chinese Subsea Valve Industry
Rotork Gears, the valve gearbox and valve accessory division of Rotork, has completed an important contract in China, working closely with Chinese valvemakers involved with subsea valve production.
Key Criteria For Selecting Low-Temperature Valves
Specifying and consulting engineers, engineering houses, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end users depend on valves to control the flow of compressed air or other fluids, and on cylinders to control motion. But the cold truth is that low temperatures can cause problems for these fluid automation devices all along the line – from selection and delivery to operation and maintenance.
OMMICA Advances Hydrates Test In Produced Fluids
Methanol and monoethylene glycol (MEG) are thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors used to prevent the formation of gas hydrates in oil and gas pipelines. As hydrates can block pipelines and remediation is often costly and potentially dangerous, hydrate formation is a large risk to offshore projects.
New Standard Serves As Testbed For Change
DNV’s latest revision to Offshore Standard for Submarine Pipeline Systems, DNV-OS-F101, will be the pilot for a new approach to rule development, competence management, communication and application.
Risk Modeling Considerations For Low Hoop Stress Pipelines
Conventional wisdom tells us that pipelines operating at a sufficiently low hoop stress are immune to failing in a rupture mode and can only fail in a leak mode. In general, that’s true. However, a recent study found that some pipelines that are operating below 30% specified minimum yield stress (SMYS) have an increased chance of low-stress ruptures and subsequent failures under certain conditions – namely select low- and high-frequency electric resistance welded (ERW) pipes with seam weld corrosion.
UPIS Luna Welcomes Shale Challenge
Philip Luna is a man on the go, and if you work for him at Houston-based UniversalPegasus International (UPI), you’d better be as well, even if it means getting to work for the 7 a.m. team meeting.
No Pipeline? For Businesses Hungry For Natural Gas, A Truck Will Do
There’s little debate that switching from fuel oil to natural gas, with its lower emissions, domestic abundance and low and stable price point, represents an opportunity for fuel-intensive businesses in North America. There’s also no argument that pipelines are the best method for delivering gas. But for businesses located off a pipeline route, the tumble in natural gas prices hasn’t benefited them nearly as much as it has their competition. For some, pipeline projects may come eventually; for others, there is no construction even being discussed.
Kinder Morgan Executive Discusses Challenging Aspects Of Double Eagle Pipeline Project
Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and the third-largest energy company (based on combined enterprise value) in North America. Kinder Morgan owns an interest in or operates approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. The company’s pipelines transport primarily natural gas, refined petroleum products, CO-2 and crude oil and its terminals store, transfer and handle such products as gasoline, ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. Combined, Kinder Morgan has an enterprise value of approximately $110 billion.
Report Offers A Timely Perspective On Natural Gas
Recently the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (“C2ES”) released a comprehensive report entitled “Leveraging Natural Gas To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions” that lays out in a thoughtful manner the promising future of natural gas. Its timeliness, coming as the shale revolution continues to build in the United States and which President Obama made a centerpiece of his Climate Action Plan (CAP), make this document essential reading.
Leveraging GIS For Pipeline Integrity In High-Consequence Areas
As oil and gas pipeline companies struggle to do more with less, the industry must rely on technology to squeak out efficiencies. Geographic information systems (GIS) have been a part of pipeline operations for decades. However, when outdated methods and resource-intensive data collection processes are used in an integrity management program, the results can become overly expensive, highly inaccurate or even non-compliant.
Chevrons Secret Weapon in Productivity: An AutoCAD Search Tool
Chevron’s Richmond, CA refinery is huge in terms of both size – 2,900 acres – and people with over 1,700 workers making it the largest of Chevron’s refinery Richmond’s largest employer.
Rolls-Royce To Power Kazakh-China Gas Line
Rolls-Royce has announced a $175 million contract to supply Asia Gas Pipeline LLP (AGP) with equipment and related services to power the flow of natural gas through Kazakhstan’s Line C Gas Pipeline, part of the vast 1,833-km Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline network.
Overcoming Inspection Challenges With EMAT Robotic ILI Tools
Many sections of piping were previously constructed or are operated in ways that do not allow the use of inline inspection (ILI) tools of a traditional design. For more than 10 years, Diakont has focused on the development and deployment of tooling to support the inspection of these pipeline sections that were previously considered “unpiggable.”
Five Key Challenges In The Oil And Gas Industrial Control System
An Industrial Control System (ICS) is comprised of many disparate components, including hardware and software technologies, the system infrastructure--from the communications network to the physical plant--the human element for tasks that require manual intervention, and the environment.
Brand New Strategy For ROSEN
ROSEN, which began as an engineering company for oil and gas industry inspection, is today a worldwide provider of cutting-edge solutions in all areas of the integrity process chain.
Accelerating Benefits Of Shale Plays With Bundled Technology
With energy independence, energy exporting through LNG, billions of dollars in economic benefit, and more than 4 million jobs hinged to the development and deployment of the shale play natural gas reserves, one would think a national plan would materialize to capitalize quickly on the pending benefits.
Energy Reforms Would Open Mexicos Petroleum Industry To Global Investment
In a bid to fulfill a campaign promise, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has proposed a change to the constitution to allow private companies to share in the development, transportation and refining of Mexico’s vast energy resources, which are reserved exclusively to Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). The changes would revert the constitution to its 1940 position, maintaining national ownership of all hydrocarbons but overturning 1950s-era changes that prevent any private interest participating in the energy industry.
Should I Build Or Buy My Cybersecurity Solution?
Cybersecurity analysts at energy companies are facing Big Malware – often more than 100,000 unknown and potentially malicious files crossing their network thresholds daily. Only a small subset of these poses significant danger, but which ones? An increasing number of companies are coming to the conclusion that an automated malware analysis solution is the answer, but how do you get started?
U.S. Shale Development Points To Far-Reaching Effect Worldwide
Ten years after the shale revolution first took off in the North Texas Barnett Shale formation, large-scale shale development primarily remains a phenomenon unique to the United States.
ESI Selected By OPA To Implement Synthesis
Energy Solutions International (ESI) was selected by the UK’s Oil and Pipelines Agency (OPA) and its operations and maintenance contractor, Costain Group Plc, to implement the Synthesis solution across the 1,243-mile fuel pipeline and terminal network known as the Government Pipeline and Storage System (GPSS).
MSC Unleashes Safety Report On Pipeline Boring Practices
The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) released “Recommended Practices for Pipeline Boring,” the seventh in a series of content-rich guidance documents developed by the coalition’s various subject-specific committees.
Innovative Monitoring System Measures Tension On Subsea Risers And Pipelines
Through a collaboration between NASA and Astro Technology Inc., a first-of-its-kind fiber-optic monitoring system was recently installed on two oil platforms off the coast of West Africa. The installation marks a milestone in the organizations’ efforts to adapt aerospace technology for use in the oil and gas industry.
Americas Repiping The Flanagan South Story
Aside from the scale, engineering, design, construction and safety challenges, any of which could define a pipeliner’s career, what really motivates Enbridge’s Flanagan South Pipeline executives Jerrid Anderson and Mark Sitek, is the idea they are part of a larger socio-economic movement across North America. They’re helping to allow domestic energy to fuel more of the load, backing out imported oil.
Technology And Natural Gas Go Hand In Hand
In late July, the natural gas industry mourned the passing of George P. Mitchell, who pioneered key technologies applied to natural gas extraction, which today are changing global energy markets. Mitchell – his vision, ingenuity and commitment - is a prime example of the ability for research and subsequent deployment of lessons learned to transform an industry, create economic value and ultimately shape the course of history.
Barrier Seal Breakthrough Improves UK Gas Grid Compressor Reliability
Many countries rely on their natural gas grid almost as much as they do their electrical grid, which makes it socially as well as economically imperative for network operators to strive for the utmost in system reliability.
Using 3D Imaging To Evaluate Damaged Subsea Pipelines
Damage to subsea pipelines can cost operators millions of dollars in downtime, lost production and repairs. Common damage events such as dropped objects, anchor drag and trawler impacts can result in dents, cracks, pitting and gouges of pipeline material. Damage events compromise the integrity of pipelines and can have significant operational and financial consequences.
Commercial Robotic Inspection Solution For Unpiggable Pipelines
A self-propelled inline inspection tool has been commercially used to inspect oil and gas lines. Surveyor, a robotic tool provided by GE’s Industrial Solutions, has been used to inspect more than 35 cased crossings or terminal tank lines. The benefit of using this tool has been its capability to quantify metal loss both internal and external and the relative ease to insert and retrieve the tool into the pipeline, thereby foregoing pipe modifications for traditional smart pigs or time required for hydrotesting.
- Trump Aims to Revive 1,200-Mile Keystone XL Pipeline Despite Major Challenges
- Valero Considers All Options, Including Sale, for California Refineries Amid Regulatory Pressure
- ConocoPhillips Eyes Sale of $1 Billion Permian Assets Amid Marathon Acquisition
- ONEOK Agrees to Sell Interstate Gas Pipelines to DT Midstream for $1.2 Billion
- Energy Transfer Reaches FID on $2.7 Billion, 2.2 Bcf/d Permian Pipeline
- U.S. LNG Export Growth Faces Uncertainty as Trump’s Tariff Proposal Looms, Analysts Say
- Tullow Oil on Track to Deliver $600 Million Free Cash Flow Over Next 2 Years
- Energy Transfer Reaches FID on $2.7 Billion, 2.2 Bcf/d Permian Pipeline
- GOP Lawmakers Slam New York for Blocking $500 Million Pipeline Project
- Texas Oil Company Challenges $250 Million Insurance Collateral Demand for Pipeline, Offshore Operations
