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Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) has opened its new, innovative Technology Development Center (TDC) in Houston, Texas within a year of groundbreaking. Construction of the TDC has been completed over a span of eight acres, including a state-of-the-art pull test facility, a 20,000 sq. ft. plus workshop and test facility with an additional 9,000 sq. ft. of office and meeting space.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) AG has awarded Technip with a contract for Project Management Services, covering the onshore portion of the pipeline from Greece to Albania and ultimately into Italy.

TAP project scope includes an approximately 870 kilometer long pipeline, which will start from the tie-in with the TANAP portion of the Southern Gas Corridor project, at the Greece/Turkey border. The pipeline will then go through Greece and Albania, to eventually cross subsea the Adriatic Sea to end in Puglia, Italy, where it will connect to the Italian natural gas network.

Nexen Energy, a large producer of tar sands oil in Canada, announced that a pipeline carrying emulsion -- a mixture of bitumen, water and sand -- had ruptured and spilled over 5 million liters into the company's Long Lake oil sands facility south of Fort McMurray in Alberta. This comes on the heels of the Santa Barbara spill two months ago, where 378 000 liters of oil was released into the Pacific. The Alberta spill is more than ten times this amount.

In a major development throwing into question the viability of the proposed Turkish Stream Gas Pipeline Project, Saipem announced that Gazprom had cancelled its $2.6 billion contract to build the pipeline on the floor of the Black Sea.

Saipem had already dispatched several of its pipe-laying ships to the Black Sea and one, the Castoro 6, was preparing to lay the first pipe segments for the project, when it received notice from Gazprom.

Responding to recent spate of pipeline ruptures and explosions over the past year, the American Petroleum Institute (API) together with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has announced a new pipeline safety management standard titled Recommended Practice (RP) 1173.

Eustream, Slovakia's national gas transmission company, has begun the commercial operation of the Slovakia-Hungary Bi-Directional Gas Pipeline, noting that all outstanding issues on the Hungarian side which had prevented the launch had been resolved.

The 113 km long pipeline offers a transmission capacity of 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Slovakia to Hungary. In the reverse mode, continuous capacity on the level of 1.8 billion cubic meters is available. 94 km of the pipeline are in Hungary; 19 in Slovakia.

In a video - transmitted ceremony marking the commencement of the Chinese part of the 3170 km - long Russia - China Gas Pipeline, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev hailed the progress of the monumental project.

Turkey announced this week that permits have been issued to Gazprom for the offshore section of Turkish Stream. According to the document surveys will be carried out within the exclusive economic zone and territorial waters of Turkey in order to place the first offshore string of the gas pipeline.

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), a Dallas based natural gas and propane company, has received permission from state officials in North Dakota to construct a large crude terminal near Watford City, North Dakota, one of six planned in the state for the proposed 1134 mile Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.

Following a self - described 'rigorous' pre-qualification process, Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP) is issuing invitations to tender for the offshore section of the project, including engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI). This particular 36 inch diameter section, running across the Adriatic Sea between the coastlines of Albania and southern Italy, will be approximately 105 km in length.

British gas giant BG Group Plc (BG.L), a global leader in natural gas, said on Tuesday it agreed to sell its wholly owned QCLNG Pipeline Pty Ltd subsidiary in Australia to APA Group (APA.AX) for $5 billion (3.19 billion pounds).

The pipeline network, running 543 km long, links natural gas fields to the Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas (QCLNG) export facility.

The company said the deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015 and is conditional on the start of commercial LNG deliveries from the QCLNG export facility at Gladstone and on partner consent.

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