Projects

Facing the prospect of punitive US sanctions, 18 European companies have suddenly ended their participation on the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. 

Petronas Gas, a subsidiary of internationally integrated oil and gas giant Petronas in Malaysia, will be constructing a 42-km long gas pipeline from its existing Peninsular Gas Utilization (PGU) II to a power plant in Pulau Indah, Selangor.  The cost of the pipeline an estimated RM541 million.

At first glance, it seems the new Joe Biden administration will be adopting the same punitive policy vis-vis Nord Srteam 2 as its predecessor:  Nord Stream 2 should not go into operation and sanctions should be used as a means to this end.

As President Biden enters the Nord Stream 2 conundrum, asserting the pipeline is a "bad deal" for Europe, Gazprom has begun a public campaign extolling the virtues of a pipeline that will help Russia and Europe to meet its most ambitious climate goals.

Nord Stream AG said yesterday that "the laybarge Fortuna has started works in the construction corridor in the Danish EEZ, ahead of the resumption of the Nord Stream 2 construction."

While Russian gas producer Gazprom has acknowledged in a Eurobond prospectus that Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project may be suspended or scrapped due to political pressure, the Kremlin followed on the same day to assert that the project would be completed.

Up to now, the Trump administration has merely threatened to impose sanctions on any company assisting with the construction of Nord Stream 2 on the floor of the Baltic.  During the past several weeks, as construction on the last few kilometers has begun despite the threats, the U.S.

The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Parliament voted last week to create its own foundation for the further construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with the coalition caucuses of the SPD, CDU and even the Linke all voting for this option. The AfD party withheld its vote.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) of Pakistan, has charged KE, the only vertically-integrated power utility in Pakistan, with the construction and operation of a 2.4-km short distance gas pipeline.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) AG announced to great fanfare on the very last day of this past year that gas has begun to flow from Azerbaijan to Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.

Fortuna, the Russian pipe-laying vessel, has successfully completed the 2,6-km section of the Nord Stream 2 subsea gas pipeline in German territorial waters and is traveling to the Hanseatic German port of Wismar. The parent Nord Stream AG in Zug, Switzerland, said the ship will resume construction of the pipeline in Danish territorial waters by mid January.

Undeterred by the threat of punitive sanctions if work on Nord Stream 2 resumes, the construction of the last hundred plus meters of the gas pipeline on the seabed of the Baltic picked up again after a one year hiatus.

The Pipeline Technology Journal (PTJ) has made several references the past weeks to European pipeliners looking into the possibility of transporting hydrogen through the existing network of gas pipelines crisscrossing Europe.

Keystone XL, first proposed over 12 years ago and given little chance for completion with the incoming and generally anti - fossil fuel Joe Biden administration, is pulling out all the stops in one last ditch effort to make its ultimate demise politically impossible. 

Despite Covid-19, The Shell Pipeline Co., has almost completed a project to better protect drinking water supplies along the Falcon Ethane Pipeline.