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Crude oil flow becomes electricity - at least in the Austrian Alps. The TAL - Transalpine Oil Pipeline - which delivers crude oil from Trieste, Italy, via the Alps to Germany and Austria, put the first crude oil "run-of-pipeline" power plant worldwide in operation on the 21st of September 2018.

From 18-21 March 2019, the international pipeline community will meet for the 14th Pipeline Technology Conference (ptc) in Berlin. More than 700 participants and over 80 exhibitors from 50 different nations are expected. Delegations from more than 70 different pipeline operators took part in the last ptc.

In addition to the traditional technical focus of the conference and exhibition (19-21 March 2019), the topics "Qualification & Recruitment" and "Public Perception" will be covered in complementary "ptc Side Conferences" on 18 March 2019.

The residents of a small part of eastern Massachusetts were shaken by an natural gas disaster. The people of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover just south of the New Hampshire border, witnessed dozens of homes explode last Thursday, while homeowners rushed to evacuate and turn off the gas. State and federal authorities are investigating after at least 60 fires and explosions traced to gas lines erupted Thursday, killing an 18-year-old man and injuring multiple people.

ROSEN Group is about to launch its new digital integrity management solution, NIMA, during this year’s IPC / IPE in Canada. According to ROSEN the new solution is offering customers a basis for secure decision-making by providing an accurate reflection of individual integrity management processes and easy access to all necessary data. The company expects NIMA to set a new standard in the oil and gas industry.

Mexico's Energy Regulatory Commission, known by its Spanish acronym CRE, has granted the country's first permit to a private company, Invex, for the transportation of refined products in a pipeline. CRE sees this as the first step in enhancing the efficiency of the domestic fuel market.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the important role of Qatar in the global LNG industry. Germany is therefore looking to Qatar to develop its LNG industry. This was announced in a speech by the Chancellor at the opening of the Qatar-Germany Business and Investment Forum held on Friday in Berlin. She further stressed that liquefied petroleum gas could "contribute to the diversification of gas supply sources" and thus also serve the security of supply. Germany is already considering the construction of an import terminal for liquefied gas.

The on again off again Trans Mountain Pipeline is currently off again, stranding some 2000 skilled workers who had been summoned for the project start.

"Official layoff notices have not been issued yet but we're waiting to hear what happens next. Our members were happy to be working. They were expecting long-term employment on the project and to wake up Thursday morning and hear the news on the radio — that the decision came down the way it did was a surprise to all of us,” said
Ryan Bruce, Director of Government and Public Relations for the union CLAC.

Over a year ago a judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would again need to review the environmental impact of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline. The Army Corps has now completed that second review and renewed the permit for the pipeline.

The Army Corps says in its decision that granting the permit and right of way for the company under federally owned land “does not result in disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority populations, including tribes, and low-income populations.”

Seeing no viable way to continue its operations in Iran without being severely penalized by US President Donald Trump's renewed sanctions, French oil giant Total has opted to sell its stake in Iran's South Pars Gas Development to China's state-owned energy company CNPC and head home.

Two major US trading partners who simultaneously have maintained a trading relationship with Iran despite Washington demands to end it are smiling all the way to the bank.

In exchange for their fidelity to the Islamic Republic's petroleum resources China and India are reaping significant financial benefits in their purchases of the crude: In addition to getting a cut in the price Iran will be covering the costs of shipping the oil as well as insuring it.

Even with the overwhelming support of the Trump administration there is no assurance in the United States that the Keystone XL Pipeline will ever be built.

Last week a federal judge has ordered the State Department to conduct a more thorough review of the pipeline’s proposed pathway after Nebraska state regulators changed the route, raising the possibility of further delays for a project first proposed in 2008.

The respective document is placed on the official legal information resource. The new law augments the article 215.3 (Disabling Oil, Gas and Petroleum Products Pipelines) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with a new clause. The latter envisages liability not only for destroying or disabling pipeline transportation facilities, but also for unauthorised tapping into oil, gas and petroleum products pipelines by a person who has already been subjected to administrative penalty for a similar wrongdoing.