Latest News

Dominion Energy will appeal to the United States Supreme Court a lower court ruling maintaining that U.S. Forest Service did not have the authority to authorize the 974-km Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from crossing a portion of the Appalachian Trail. The three-member Appeals Court also ruled that the Forest Service “abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources” by giving the pipeline project the “green light” to cross the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests.

The ACP would originate in West Virginia and run through North Carolina and Virginia.

In what has become a common refrain in the Canadian Oil Industry, Enbridge Energy is delaying the startup of its long planned Line 3 replacement crude oil pipeline through northern Minnesota. The delay means that the pipeline, which was expected to be operational this year in November, 2019, will have to wait until the second half of 2020, assuming all permits have been obtained and regulatory hurdles overcome.

The russian company Gazprom has announced that the construction of its gas pipeline to China has been completed by 99 %.

In May 2014, Gazprom and the Chinese national oil and gas company (CNPC) signed a contract for the sale of Russian gas via the eastern route. The duration of the contract is 30 years and covers the supply of 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year to the People's Republic of China.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has signed a US$4 bn midstream pipeline infrastructure partnership agreement with US-based institutional investors KKR and BlackRock. ADNOC is expanding through strategic partnerships since 2017. With the contract a newly formed entity known as Adnoc Oil Pipelines will lease ADNOC’s interest in 18 pipelines for a 23-year period.

Croatian Gas Center Ltd. and Croatian Gas Association, member of the International Gas Union (IGU) are announcing the 34th edition of the International Scientific & Expert Meeting of Gas Professionals, which will be held from 8th to 10th of May, 2019 in the Congress Centre of the Grand Hotel Adriatic, in Opatija, Croatia.

Uganda and Tanzania are making great headway in the development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (also known by its acronym EACOP), a 1,445-km long underground crude oil pipeline from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania costing approximately $3.5 billion.

The technocrats from Uganda and Tanzania are scheduled to hold another round of discussions next week to iron out three contentious issues that were deferred during negotiations of the Host Government Agreements (HGAs) for EACOP.

SoCalGas, a utility providing natural gas for home heating and other uses to nearly 22 million people across Southern and Central California with a checkered safety history in the state, is under scrutiny for a 2017 explosion caused by a gas leak, which affected a residential neighborhood in Ontario and caused “severe damages to nearby garages and injury to one person.”

The tragic incident in Mexico makes it clear that pipeline tapping is becoming an increasing problem. A problem that not only costs human lives and causes enormous material damage, but also a problem that undermines public confidence in the pipeline transport systems and their operators.

Unknown individuals tried to tap gasoline from a fuel pipeline. The attempt led to the explosion of the pipeline, killing at least 100 people and wounding many more.

Local media reported that several hundred people were in the vicinity of the pipeline at the time of the explosion. The pipeline in the city of Tlahuelilpan had previously leaked, and local residents were approaching it to take the gasoline with them in buckets or canisters.

The Pipeline Transport Institute and Transneft Diascan have signed contracts for diagnostics (inspection) with Sonatrach, an Algerian state oil and gas company. In December, the documents were signed in the city of Algiers within the framework of the development of the provisions of the memorandum of Cooperation signed between Transneft and Sonatrach. The Memorandum was signed in October 2017 during the meeting of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister of Algeria Ahmed Ouyahia.

The Science and Technical Centre of the Pipeline Transport Institute in Ufa has commissioned a thermohydraulic test bench for studying heavy and bituminous oils.

The test bench’s principle of operation is based on recording oil parameters (pressure, flow and temperature) and their changes in the measuring line. The measured data is used to assess changes in rheological parameters of oil at different temperatures.

Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, could introduce a new sale and purchase agreement (SPA) for the sale of the Transportadora Associada de Gás (TAG) pipeline, after a Brazilian Supreme Court injunction this past July stalled the sale.