Pipelines NEWS

Securing contracts from Permian, Alaska through the Bakken and then Louisiana’s onshore energy contract, Wood has won a string of new contracts in US midstream this year. These contracts are worth about £190m, and will create about 1,000 new jobs. CEO of Wood’s Asset Solutions Americas commented “These contracts show the strength and expertise of Wood to deliver a diversified portfolio of energy,”

Oil minister of India has updated the nation about the recent talks with Nepal. The two countries have agreed to discover various possibilities for laying pipelines to supply LPG and natural gas. Pradhan said “Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) will work together on these projects,” The leader of both the countries have agreed to complete the ongoing pipeline work from Motihari, India to Amlekhgunj, Nepal.

India and Bangladesh yesterday jointly unveiled a pipeline project for widening the connectivity network in the region. The projects include the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline and the Dhaka-Tongi-Joydebpur railway project. The unveiling came after the Bangladesh cabinet approved access of Chittagong port by NE states of India. The pipeline will transport high speed diesel to Bangladesh, currently being supplied through cross-border train from Numaligarh refinery.

At an enterprise valuation of $2 billion, investment firm Brookfield is all set to acquire the East West Pipeline Ltd (EWPL), currently running at a loss. Post-acquisition, Brookfield will own the 1,400 km common carrier pipeline from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat. Brookfield is supporting India Infrastructure Trust, an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) as the acquisition vehicle.

According to the source, Algeria has decided to enhance the output of Europe, for which it will invest $280 million to build a gas pipeline. The capacity of the pipeline will be 4.5 bcm per year and is expected to be online by 2020. The plan is to connect this 197 km pipeline with two others that will further link it to Spain.

Norwegian oil giant, Equinor has concluded the installation of the 283-km crude oil pipeline for its Johan Sverdrup project. The pipeline, laid by Saipem’s Castorone, runs through the North Sea to the Mongstad oil terminal outside Bergen, Norway. The Saipem-owned vessel is now preparing to lay the 156-km long natural gas pipeline from Johan Sverdrup to the Statpipe pipeline, shipping gas from the field to Karsto.

Coming out of its shell and expanding its business beyond natural gas processing, Black Bear Midstream will now enter into “dry” gas market. The company announced on Sept.10 that it has entered into a six-year agreement and will provide dry gas gathering service from late 2018. Presently, Black Bear has a cryogenic gas processing plant in LA of 140 MMcf/d capacity and NGL pipeline of 40-mile.

CNPC’s listed arm, PetroChina updated about the completion of a new pipeline by Yunnan refinery for the transportation of gasoline and diesel. The newly constructed pipeline is 81 km long, with an annual transport capacity of 1.68 million tonnes. The Yunnan refinery is one of the PetroChina’s largest refining projects with 260,000 barrels per day of crude refining capacity that began production in 2017.

CEO of Suncor Energy Inc. has denied any further pipeline expansions in Canada “until it becomes clearer when new pipelines will be ready”. Suncor took this decision after the Canadian court upended the government’s consent of expansion of Trans Mountain pipeline. In Canada, the new pipelines construction has failed to match the rate of heavy oil production which is now disrupting the supply and creating pricing issues for the country.

Amidst all the controversies and the risk of sanctions, Nord Stream 2 pipeline work is rolling on schedule according to its operator. It will transport gas from Russia to Germany. Earlier a warning was issued by Washington that the Western firms were at risk of sanctions. But then too, the European investors are committed to the project. The Nord Stream 2 will start operations by the end of 2018.

Plains All American Pipeline yesterday updated on the fire on its Texas crude storage tank. The pipeline giant, in a statement, said that the fire was extinguished, and the situation was under control. The terminal and connecting pipelines have resumed operations. The crude storage tank was caught in fire on Tuesday morning. Wichita Falls is a crude injection point in north Texas along Plain’s Basin Pipeline.

In its last attempt to save the company from splitting, GAIL India will launch its new portal tomorrow allowing anyone to hire its pipeline network for natural gas transportation. The Oil Ministry in January considered dividing the company, one for transportation and other for marketing in order to avoid any internal conflicts. According to the sources, GAIL has been accused of denying access to its 11,000-kilometer pipeline network.

In a major acquisition move, Enbridge Inc will buy all the shares of Spectra Energy in USD 3.3 billion. The transaction is scheduled to be finalised by the 4Q2018. The deal will streamline Enbridge’s corporate structure, following the recent US tax changes. Yesterday, pipeline giant, Enbridge mentioned a “significant weakening of MLP capital markets” as undesirably affecting accelerative growth for the unit.

India is, reportedly, in talks to negotiate over the prices of natural gas to be imported through the proposed $10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline. The discussion escalated in light of the current slump in global energy markets. India signed a gas sale purchase agreement (GSPA) in 2013 that benchmarked the price of natural gas to be exported by Turkmenistan at 55% of the present crude oil price.

Subsea cable firm, Tekmar Group will acquire Darlington-headquartered Subsea Innovation in a £4 million deal. Tekmar will obtain a 40,000 sq ft manufacturing and office facility under the acquisition agreement. Subsea Innovation holds expertise in back deck equipment and subsea pipeline repair clamps. Tekmar’s non-executive chairman believes that Subsea Innovation’s blue chip global client base will allow Tekmar to tap new sales opportunities for their offshore wind business.

Premier Oil of UK has decided on the final investment of Tolmount Main field in the UK North Sea. The company will now focus on the development of Tolmount Main gas field and will include its joint venture and infrastructure partners. The expected capacity of the field will be around 500 billion cubic feet. EPCIC contract has been awarded to Rosetti Marino while Saipem will have pipeline EPCI contract.

Norwegian state-owned Gassco has entered into an agreement deploy eVision’s proprietary solutions software across its North Sea assets. eVision’s software solutions, Permit Vision and ShiftVision, are designed to enable smooth integration into Gassco’s digital ecosystem. This will enable the natural gas pipeline operator to have an updated overview of operations across the six assets.

ExxonMobil has come in support of $2bn Permian Highway Pipeline project by signing a letter of intent (LOI). The project is a joint venture of Kinder Morgan’s subsidiary Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline (KMTP), Apache and EagleClaw Midstream Ventures. American oil major will provide shipping facilities to the PHP. With a capacity of 2 Bcf/d the natural gas will be transported to the areas of US Goalf Coast and Mexico markets.