Pipeline

Natural Gas Pipeline Market Failure Looms

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One of the biggest ignored threats to the power sector – and to electricity delivery to homes and businesses across much of the country’s most populated regions – is from a lack of natural gas pipeline capacity. A former federal regulator is warning that this issue, arcane at first glance, could prompt market failure and a crisis of reliability for some generators.

The free market is a funny thing; it works only over time and often in socially unpopular ways. The energy market in the US has been regulated, de-regulated and re-regulated over its history, but all market participants are operating in the context of rules set up to balance policy priorities and operating realities. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 3, 2013 at 10:30 AM

Exxon Pipeline Leaks Thousands of Barrels of Canadian Oil in Arkansas

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Exxon Mobil was working to clean up thousands of barrels of oil in Mayflower, Arkansas, after a pipeline carrying heavy Canadian crude ruptured, a major spill likely to stoke debate over transporting Canada’s oil to the United States.

Exxon shut the Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Pakota, Illinois, to Nederland, Texas, after the leak was discovered on Friday afternoon, the company said in a statement. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 1, 2013 at 10:30 AM

Keystone XL Pipeline Wins Senate Support

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With a bipartisan majority vote of 62-37, the Senate demonstrated its support for Keystone XL pipeline construction for the first time.

On March 22, the US Senate voted in favor of an amendment that supports construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL project, a 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport crude oil from Canada to Texas refineries. The amendment, introduced by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Max Baucus (D-Montana), passed the Senate by a 62-37 margin, with 17 Democrats joining all Republicans in the vote of support. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) abstained from the vote due to illness. Sens. Hoeven and Baucus also have proposed a separate bill that would facilitate Congressional approval of the project under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, bypassing the decision-making authority of President Obama. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 28, 2013 at 8:30 AM

Royal Dutch Shell: Gearing To Repair Shutdown Louisiana Pipeline

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The Caillou to Houma pipeline was shut down late Saturday after a light sheen was seen near a pump station in Lake Barre, off the state’s coast. “We believe the origin of the sheen is a small release” from the 16-inch crude pipeline, spokeswoman Kimberly Windon said in an e-mail.

The sheen disappeared on Sunday, but the company deployed a response crew and boom around the point where the crude leaked. “Our response team will continue to closely monitor the release site while preparations are made to safely inspect and repair the pipeline, as soon as possible, weather permitting,” Ms. Windon said, adding that the cause of the incident is being investigated. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 26, 2013 at 11:05 AM

Why Pipes Matter: The Importance of Clad Pipe in the Oil and Gas Industry

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The theme of this Q&A is “Why pipes matter.” Can you address this question in a
nutshell?

A. Definitely. As you know, the era of cheap, easy oil is over. The International Energy Agency estimates that 70 percent of the world’s remaining oil reserves consist of crude oil with either high sulfur or CO2 content that requires high quality, corrosion-resistant materials. In order to keep up with demand, oil companies must identify new technologies to develop these heavy oil reserves. The same is true of gas – gas from more than 50 percent of the world’s gas fields is highly corrosive. In these challenging environments, oil and gas developers need to leverage every available technical solution to maintain optimal production. A key element is the integrity of risers and flowlines, which is where corrosion-resistant clad pipe comes into play. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 15, 2013 at 1:30 PM

State Department Keystone Draft Supplementary EIS Assessment Released

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The State Department released the latest documents in one of the highest-profile and highest-stakes projects in the North American energy sector today.

The Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement was released March 1, 2013, and includes extensive information on the project, which has attracted the ire of a wide swathe the environmental community and been treated by the oil and gas business as a litmus test of the Obama Administration’s commitment to securing energy supply and energy security through increased development. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 1, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Oil Market Dynamics: Moving the Bakken Barrel

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The refineries along the US East Coast sit close to some of the globe’s largest energy demand centers, but face such high prices for the crude they process that many have struggled to make money. Many import crude oil from Africa and the Middle East, and have been cut off from cheaper supply recently surging out of the middle and west of North America by limits on transportation infrastructure.

Companies like Enbridge, which presented recently at the US Association for Energy Economics, are seeking solutions to a bottleneck that is preventing lower-priced crude from competing on global or even national markets. Much oil currently travels by rail, as we’ve noted on Breaking Energy before, and may increasingly go multi-modal, from pipelines into rail cars and vice versa as it wends its way to energy-hungry Eastern US and Eastern Canadian markets. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 10, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Supply Shift Prompts Energy Forecast Revisions

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For several years the focus of the energy sector has been on the supply side. A lingering economic recession has kept demand pressures from building across much of the sector – crude oil being an exception at times – and the notable surge in supply of natural gas and even domestically produced oil has turned analysis and forecasting to focus on the impacts of more supply.

That trend was in evidence at the US Association for Energy Economics summit in November in Austin, Texas, where panelists from companies including Williams, Enbridge and Ranger Midstream discussed the impact supply side revisions have had on their businesses. The significant opportunity to displace imported oil is highlighted by speakers here, noting the trend days before the release of an International Energy Agency report that forecast the US could become the single largest oil producer in the world. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 6, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Enbridge Details Pipeline Expansion Projects

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Enbridge said it has secured funding for $2.6 billion in additional pipeline projects linking western Canadian oil to eastern markets, while Enbridge Energy Partners said it will spend $360 million to expand its crude-oil mainline system. Enbridge said its Eastern Access expansion projects will include the expansion of its Toledo pipeline, which connects with the Enbridge mainline in Stockbridge, Mich., and serves refineries at Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, and a rereversal of its Line 9B from Westover, Ontario to Montreal to serve refineries in Quebec. The company previously announced plans for a rereversal of Line 9A from Sarnia, Ontario to Westover.

 /  Published May 18, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Getting to Market: Detours on the Road to Oil Abundance

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North America’s emerging oil shale abundance can fundamentally alter the US’s energy landscape, but experts say the road ahead may have a lot of detours.

The issues start with how much new supply can get to market. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 5, 2012 at 9:00 AM
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