8
World Pipelines
/
AUGUST 2015
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON EVENTS VISIT
Events DIARY
24 - 26 August 2015
The Pipeline + Energy Expo
Tulsa, USA
/
8 - 11 September 2015
Offshore Europe
Aberdeen, UK
14 - 17 September 2015
Turbomachinery Pump Symposia
Houston, USA
/
22 - 24 September 2015
Rio Pipeline Conference
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
/
5 - 9 October 2015
49
th
IPLOCA Annual Convention
Singapore
/
27 - 29 October 2015
OTC Brasil 2015
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
/
27 - 30 October 2015
Gastech Conference and Exhibition
Singapore
/
9 - 12 November 2015
ADIPEC
Abu Dhabi, UAE
/
9 - 12 November 2015
Fabtech
Chicago, USA
/
W
o
rld News
➤
FERC issues EIS for
Magnolia LNG and Lake
Charles expansion projects.
➤
GE Oil & Gas and CLH Group
sign contract.
➤
Fall in oil company merger
activity.
To read more about the articles go to
News Highlights
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Forties restrictions
A restriction has been placed on the
amount of oil that can be put
through the North Sea’s Forties
crude oil pipeline system (UK).
BP is the operator of the Forties
Pipeline System (FPS). This year
marks the 40
th
anniversary for the
FPS, which was inaugurated in 1975
by the Queen.
Analsyts speculate that the
change in pressure could be due to
work at the Kinneil processing plant,
which handles unstabilised crude.
When two trains are offline at
Kinneil, the remaining train is
normally unable to process all the
crude coming through the FPS,
depending on shipper demand.
Loadings of Forties crude will
slow to 348 000 bpd in August, as a
number of fields undergo
maintenance.
PGNiG’s play for Yamal
Poland’s natural gas giant PGNiG’s unit
has filed for a green light from the anti-
monopoly office UOKiK to take over
Bartimpex and its gas-trading unit, which
controls a 4% stake in EuRoPol Gaz and is
the owner of the Polish stretch of the
Yamal natural gas pipeline.
PGNiG currently holds a 48% stake in
EuRoPol Gaz, on a par with Russian gas
giant Gazprom.
The motion was filed by PGNiG’s unit
GAS Assets Management.
PGNiG has been embroiled in a long
struggle to gain control over the company,
which is of strategic importance in the
context of ongoing energy disputes
between the EU and Russia.
Yamal passes through four countries,
Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.
The EU treats the pipeline as a priority
Trans-European Networks (TEN) investment
project. Construction began in 1994 and it
has a capacity of 32.9 billion m
3
/yr.
In May, Siemens was awarded a
service and maintenance contract for the
turbo-compressors operating at five
compressor stations in Poland along the
Yamal pipeline.
Nexen leak investigated
Nexen Energy apologised this month for
a major leak in an Alberta pipeline. The
company reported that a warning
system failed to detect the leak.
At a press conference, Ron Bailey,
the company’s Senior Vice President of
Canadian operations, said the company
is investigating what caused the pipeline
to rupture and why the system failed.
A contractor discovered the leak on
15 July about 35 km southeast of Fort
McMurray. Nexen shut down the
pipeline but approximately 5 million l of
bitumen, produced water and sand was
spilled.
The company’s automated
monitoring system allegedly failed to
report the breach. The affected area is
about 16 000 m
2
.
Oilsands emulsion surged out of a
hole that looked like a ‘fish mouth’, even
though it was a high-pressure, double-
walled pipeline that had been installed
less than nine months ago, according to
Bailey. He added that the pipeline was
double-walled to provide insulation for
the steam-bitumen mixture, operating at
100˚C, over the 10 km distance.
