6
World Pipelines
/
AUGUST 2015
In BRIEF
USA
Opponents of the proposed PennEast
pipeline are claiming a victory after the
US State Department of Environmental
Protection said it doesn’t have enough
information to evaluate the permits
needed to build the US$1.2 billion
natural gas pipeline.
USA
MPLX – a partnership controlled by
Marathon Petroleum Corp., a refinery
and pipeline company – will buy
MarkWest Energy Partners LP for US$15.
billion. The deal will combine two
companies.
Nigeria
Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) could
sue the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) over its failure to
pay N$1.9 billion as debt accruing for the
protection of pipelines contract
terminated over a month ago.
USA
A US State taskforce has called for a
series of independent studies of the
risks, alternatives and costs of an oil-
related disaster from Line 5, the oil
pipeline that crosses the Straits of
Mackinac at the top of Lake Michigan.
Nigeria
Twelve people died and three were
injured in an explosion during repair
work at an Eni SpA crude oil pipeline in
Nigeria.
USA
A test facility that can help identify and
prevent potentially catastrophic
pipeline failures around the world has
opened for business. The US$1.5 million
Technology Development Centre in
Houston was created by the PRCI
(Pipeline Research Council International).
Colombia
Colombia’s Farc guerrillas bombed a
new section of an oil pipeline, after a
first attack that spilled 10 000 bbls of oil
into rivers and streams in Nariño
province.
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Statoil to sell stake in TAP project
Norway’s Statoil is to sell its 20 % stake
in the Trans Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP)
project that will carry gas from
Azerbaijan to Europe, the President of
Azeri state energy firm SOCAR has
announced.
The 870 km pipeline will connect
with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline
(TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border
at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and
the Adriatic Sea, before reaching
southern Italy.
Italian gas infrastructure company
Snam has suggested that it could take
a stake of up to 20% in the TAP
project. SOCAR is understood to
prefer that a collection of companies
buys the stake.
TAP’s other shareholders are BP
(20%), SOCAR (20%), Belgium’s Fluxys
(19%), Spain’s Enagas (16%) and Swiss
company Axpo (5%).
Statoil has already sold its shares in
Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field as well
as the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) to
SOCAR, BP and Malaysia’s Petronas.
NWT proposes ‘Arctic
Gateway’
Canada’s Northwest Territories
(NWT) government has recently been
discussing the possibility of an Arctic
crude oil pipeline route.
David Ramsay, the territory’s
Minister of Industry, has stated that
the pipeline is one alternative to the
shipping of crude oil to the east,
south, and west, due to the delays of
the other pipelines.
Though Ramsay did not disclose
the companies with whom he had
met with regarding the pipeline, he
stated: “we’ll see where it all goes,
but right now you don’t see too
much happening in the way of
Keystone or Energy East or Northern
Gateway… the north may, in fact, at
some point be a viable option.”
David Ramsay and NWT Premier
Bob McLeod have for some time
been pushing the concept of an
‘Arctic Gateway’ pipeline, which
could see Alberta crude moved north
for shipment from a port on the
Beaufort Sea coast.
A spokesperson for Enbridge
confirmed company representatives
had met with Ramsay, but gave no
further details.
McLeod said the region has a
CAN$3 billion infrastructure deficit
that is keeping resources locked in
the ground and preventing economic
development that would bring jobs
and prosperity.
Tennessee pipeline downsized
Kinder Morgan has announced plans to
downsize the pipeline diameter for its
Tennessee Gas Pipeline. The pipeline will
feature 30 in. pipes instead of 36 in. This also
reduces the size of a proposed compressor
station in New Ipswich.
“The company will now file an amended
resource report with FERC that will indicate
the 30 in. configuration,” said Allen Fore,
Kinder Morgan Vice President for Public
Affairs.
“We have always said we won’t
overbuild. We want to build to serve the
natural gas needs of the region. At this point
we are comfortable with a 30 in. pipeline as
satisfying the customers we have secured
and the customers we are looking to secure.”
The company announced mid July that
its board of directors had approved a
US$3.3 billion investment based on the
smaller diameter.
The amended pipeline proposal means
that a compressor station planned for New
Ipswich in New Hampshire will be cut nearly
in half, from 80 000 hp to 41 000, according
to Fore, although the same amount of land
will be required for the compressor and the
pipeline itself.
The project is designed to transport low-
cost natural gas from the Marcellus shale
formation in Pennsylvania to Dracut,
Massachusetts. The approved project is much
smaller in total capacity than the 2.2 billion ft
3
/d
originally planned. However, it still allows
Tennessee Gas to expand in the future to the
larger capacity if customer demand grows,
according to a company spokesman.
