Pipeline

The oil and gas industry long has had an image problem, but the consequences from the Macondo well blowout — as well as recent onshore gas pipeline explosions and well blowouts — may take years to repair, executives said at the Offshore Technology Conference earlier this month.

Continuing schedule delays — exacerbated by a ruling by the Department of Transportation Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHSMA) that ended the use of a key vapor gas dispersion model — have prompted Crown Landing LLC to ask FERC for a one-year extension to revise a permit application for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Delaware River in Gloucester County, NJ.

Continuing schedule delays — exacerbated by a ruling by the Department of Transportation Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHSMA) that ended the use of a key vapor gas dispersion model — have prompted Crown Landing LLC to ask FERC for a one-year extension to revise a permit application for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Delaware River in Gloucester County, NJ.

Given the events in Japan and last September’s fatal natural gas pipeline rupture in California, residents in and around California state’s capital are stirring up eleventh-hour doubts about a proposed underground gas storage facility south of their city. Some Sacramento residents will not accept a final environmental report listing as remote the chance of a leak or accident at the proposed facility.

While natural gas interests in California are wary about several proposed laws aimed at transmission pipeline operations in the wake of the San Bruno explosion last year, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is raising a red flag on another gas issue that is tied to some of the current proposals to begin cutting into a $25 billion state budget deficit.

A U.S. subsidiary of Norway’s Statoil ASA has finalized an agreement to increase the availability of natural gas midstream services in the Marcellus Shale of northern West Virginia.

A crack stemming from an overstressed weld on the seam of the Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE) pipeline may have played a part in the deadly explosion last September in San Bruno, CA, according to a report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.

EXCO Resources Inc. grew oil and natural gas production by 70% in the fourth quarter compared to the year-ago period, the company said. In 4Q2010 EXCO produced 32.2 Bcfe, or 350 MMcfe/d. Expectations are that 2011 production will average 520-580 MMcfe/d.

A crack stemming from an overstressed weld on the seam of the Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE) pipeline may have played a part in the deadly explosion last September in San Bruno, CA, according to a report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.