Pipe

Liquefaction and export of domestic U.S. gas is no longer a pipe dream but an eventual certainty given the abundance of supplies from shales and thirst for gas in other parts of the world, particularly in Asian markets, said speakers at Deloitte’s annual Oil & Gas Conference in Houston Thursday. True, there are export naysayers; a recent Deloitte study commissioned by BG Group addresses at least some of their concerns.

The low price of natural gas may be keeping producers up at night, but it’s helping some Pennsylvania consumers sleep easier.

When it comes to ethane projects in the Marcellus Shale, MarkWest Energy Partners LP believes there is strength in numbers, the company said in a quarterly conference call on Tuesday.

Citing a possible leak, ANR said it is performing an unplanned pipe inspection on its 747 Line that requires the shut-in of four South Marsh Island meters offshore Louisiana.

A year after the fatal Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture, California’s two other state-regulated pipe operators offer a marked contrast when it comes to safety practices. They vary greatly from each other as well as from PG&E.

FERC has approved Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) proposed 225,000 Dth/d expansion of its system to serve growing natural gas markets in the Southeast region, the Williams Partners LP subsidiary said Wednesday.

The American Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America and the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, together with the Canadian Gas Association and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, have initiated a study to explore safety models and procedures in other sectors for use in the delivery of natural gas and pipeline-transported liquids. The study will complement the investigative initiative of the National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Transportation’s regulatory initiatives, which currently are under way. The study is expected to be completed as early as February.

With gas quality issues resolved at South Marsh Island 184, ANR said it had lifted all associated capacity restrictions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) proposed 142,000 Dth/d expansion, the Mid-Atlantic Connector (MAC), which calls for the construction of 42-inch diameter pipeline extending from Transco’s Compressor Station 185 in Prince William County, VA, to Fairfax County, VA; the abandonment and replacement of pipeline in Fairfax County; and the construction of a 3,550-hp internal combustion-driven compressor unit at Transco’s existing Compressor Station 165 in Pittsylvania County, VA [CP11-31]. Transco, a subsidiary of Williams Partners LP, also plans to install one 33,000-hp electric motor-driven compressor unit at its Compressor Station 175 in Fluvanna County, VA, and to abandon four 4,400-hp internal combustion-driven compressor units, leaving it with a net addition of 15,400 hp at Compressor Station 175. The pipeline estimates that the expansion, to be completed in late 2012, will cost $55 million (see NGI, July 20, 2009). When completed, the MAC expansion will provide Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc. and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. with incremental firm transportation capacity from a Transco interconnection with East Tennessee Natural Gas pipeline in Rockingham County, NC, to delivery points as far north as Maryland. Other supply points in the path of the project include interconnects with Columbia Gas Transmission, Dominion Transmission and Dominion Cove Point.