8
World Pipelines
/
JUNE 2015
IN BRIEF
Greece
It has been reported that Russian
President Vladimir Putin told Greek
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that Russia
was willing to provide financing to
Greek companies involved in a planned
extension to the Turkish Stream gas
pipeline project.
China
The Gazprom Management Committee
Chairman Alexey Miller and the CNPC
Vice President Wang Dongjin signed the
Heads of Agreement for pipeline gas
supply from Russia to China via the
western route. Miller and Dongjin also
signed an agreement of strategic
co-operation outlining the main areas of
joint actions in the gas sector.
Vietnam
FlexTech has secured a contract with an
oil and gas major in Vietnam. The
project involves FlexTech managing the
system design, manufacturing, inspection
and delivery of flexibles on a major
FPSO facility in the South China Sea.
Argentina
ShawCor Ltd’s pipe coating division has
received two contracts for
approximately US$55 million from
Tenaris to provide three layer
polyethylene anti-corrosion pipeline
coatings for the first and second phase
of the Argentina Northeast Gas Pipeline
project.
Russia
Pakistan and Russia have finalised an
agreement under which Moscow will
lend Islamabad US$2 billion to lay a
pipeline that will transport LNG from
Karachi to Lahore. In return, Russian
companies will be awarded the contract
to build the pipeline. The formal
agreement between the two sides is
expected to be signed next month.
Poland
The European Union has allocated
€
10.6 million in assistance to finance
preparatory work for laying a gas
pipeline between Poland and Lithuania,
Lithuanian gas transmission company
Amber Grid has announced.
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TAPI completion update
The construction of the US$10 billion
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
gas pipeline project will be completed
in the next five years, according to
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. The
ambitious TAPI gas pipeline was
expected to be operational in 2018.
“We have a framework for transmitting
with the pipelines from Turkmenistan to
Afghanistan to Pakistan to India. But I invite
you to another alternative.
“TAPI will take five years. I invite the
Indian industry to join us in production
of fertilisers and chemical industry based
on supply of gas from Turkmenistan and
Afghanistan’s natural gas,” Ghani said at
a business event.
The TAPI project has been delayed
because the four nations have not been
able to find an international firm to
head a consortium, which will lay and
operate the pipeline.
US Energy Secretary talks
gas pipe infrastructure
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has
stressed that there is much work to do
to modernise the nation’s outdated
system for moving oil, natural gas and
power.
“It is the right time, maybe it’s a
little after the right time, for us to make
these kind of investments in energy
infrastructure,” Moniz said.
Nationwide, new pipelines must be
built, old ones repaired and electric
grids and transformers insulated from
storms and terrorist attacks.
Those urgent needs are spotlighted
in the government’s first quadrennial
energy review (QER), an analysis of
nearly 500 pages that offers a
US$15 billion road map for updating
US energy infrastructure and making it
more resilient against threats.
America’s natural gas pipelines in
particular are a critical weak link in the
nation’s sprawling electric grid, Moniz
also said. “The natural gas system, the
distribution pipes, are a big issue,”
Moniz said, speaking at a breakfast
hosted by the Christian Science
Monitor.
“About half of the distribution
pipes in the country are 50 years old or
older, so that’s a very obvious area.”
High volume transmission pipelines
remain ‘underutilised’, Moniz noted, but
smaller distribution lines are ageing and
at capacity, harming the environment
and putting consumers at risk of
explosions.
Proserv completes phase one
of subsea project in Brazil
Proserv has successfully completed the
first phase of one of its largest contracts
yet to provide subsea control systems for
deepwater projects in Brazil.
The firm has delivered the initial three
control systems that will support drill pipe
riser (DPR) intervention services at depths
of 2500 m. The work forms part of a
US$40 million deal with a leading oilfield
service company. The remaining six
systems are expected to be delivered by
the turn of the year.
David Lamont, Proserv’s Chief
Executive Officer, said: “We are delighted
to have completed the opening stage of
this contract award [...] From our subsea
controls experts in Great Yarmouth – who
are responsible for the overall project
execution, engineering and build of the
control systems – to the delivery of the
first accompanying hydraulic power units
by our dedicated manufacturing facility in
Johor Bahru, Malaysia, this success
demonstrates the international
collaboration across the business to deliver
best in class technology and service.”
Proserv’s DPR control system is the first
of its kind for the offshore industry. It
incorporates deepwater electro-hydraulic
installation and workover controls for
supporting the manipulation of all subsea
operations, the tubing hanger running tools
and surface test trees. The systems all
feature Proserv’s Artemis 2G, a next-
generation subsea electronics module for
challenging environmental and operational
conditions.
