Train

Mayors from five cities across the country are joining calls for greater regulatory oversight of the nation’s railways, following a spate of accidents in Canada and the U.S. involving train cars carrying crude oil.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had a team of investigators on the scene Tuesday near Casselton, ND, where a BNSF train carrying crude oil smashed into another train that had derailed earlier, setting off explosions and fires in nine tanker cars.

Cheniere Energy Inc. unit Sabine Pass Liquefaction (SPL) has filed with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for authorization to export up to 314 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year for a term of 20 years from the Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project in Louisiana to countries that have free trade agreements (FTA) with the United States and to non-FTA countries.

Freeport LNG Expansion LP has struck two binding 20-year liquefaction tolling agreements (LTA) for its proposed natural gas liquefaction and loading facility on Quintana Island near Freeport, TX. The separate agreements are with SK E&S LNG LLC (SK) and Toshiba Corp., each for a base quantity of 2.2. million tons per annum (mtpa).

Linde North America has broken ground for an air separation unit (ASU) plant in La Porte, TX, part of a $200 million investment that is to include a gasification train and supporting facilities. The German-based The Linde Group unit, set to begin operations in 1Q2015, would be the largest single site investment in plant and equipment to date in the United States. Oxygen and nitrogen produced by the ASU would supply gasification assets at the Texas site, converting natural gas into syngas and constituent products such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which are used to produce methanol, downstream chemicals and cleaner transportation fuels (see related story). The syngas products would be served by pipeline to a “key” customer, the company said. “Coupled with our unique portfolio of industrial gas and hydrocarbons technology, engineering and operations capabilities, the new plants will allow Linde to better serve the petrochemicals industry that is being driven to new heights by the shale gas revolution,” said Linde North America President Pat Murphy.

Subsidiaries of Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) propelled the company to big profits during the first quarter of 2013, allowing it to raise its quarterly dividend 19% and aligning it for more than $12 billion of expansion and joint venture (JV) projects across North America.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Region 6 office in Dallas is holding a volunteer effort through Feb. 28 to train exploration and production workers about health and safety issues at sites in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The National Service, Transmission, Exploration & Production Safety Network, commonly known as STEPS, is participating. Participating companies may choose to hold training events at their work sites with OSHA materials. A commitment form and training tools to conduct job site inspections is available online through the OSHA Education Center at the University of Texas Arlington website.

Teak Midstream LLC’s 200 MMcf/d Silver Oak cryogenic gas processing plant is now online in South Texas, along with 250 miles of gathering and residue delivery pipelines, the company said Tuesday.

CNBC and NBC News on Thursday used cross-network programming to train their cameras on the resurgence in Ohio, once the heart of the U.S. steel industry, which has been reborn in part from the growth in the auto industry, as well as drilling operations in the Utica Shale.