Natural Gas Processing News

A very active Atlantic hurricane season so far this year has not sent storms across U.S. oil and natural gas fields in the northern Gulf of Mexico, sparing energy companies billions of dollars of losses and consumers higher fuel costs.The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season has been another in a string with above average activity producing three major hurricanes with winds above 111 mph (179 kph) out of six hurricanes among 20 named tropical storms.So far this year, only one storm, Tropical Storm Harold, on Aug.

There will likely be normal levels of tropical storm activity over the next two weeks as the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season hits its peak, forecasters at Colorado State University said on Thursday.An upper-level trough in the atmosphere is expected to continue bringing near-normal to above-normal wind shear over the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean, the forecasters said.“This increased shear is likely due to a vigorous tropical upper-tropospheric trough which has been one of the primary reasons why the Atlantic hurricane season has not been as active as projected…

Forecasters on Thursday amped up their outlook for the U.S. Atlantic hurricane season, saying warm sea temperatures and the absence of a moderating wind shear portend a "well-above average" number of storms.Colorado State University researchers raised their estimate for tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes by one apiece to 20, 10 and five, respectively. There is a 50% chance or more of at least one major hurricane apiece hitting the East and Gulf Coasts, it said.The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season began on Wednesday and continues through Nov.

U.S. energy companies were returning workers and restarting operations at storm-swept production facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, two days after Hurricane Delta barreled through the area.Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BHP Group were returning workers to production platforms in the U.S.-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico, the companies said.BHP expect[ed] to complete the return of workers to its Shenzi and Neptune production platforms on Sunday, spokeswoman Judy Dane said…

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday predicted up to 16 more named tropical storms this year, to as many as 25, the highest in the agency's history.The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1, has already produced nine named tropical storms, two of which reached hurricane strength, including Isaias that lashed the North American Atlantic coast this week."We've never forecast up to 25 named storms, so this is the first time," said Gerry Bell…

The technology company The Linde Group has been awarded a contract from Chinese chemical and energy company Inner Mongolia Huineng Coal Chemical Co Ltd to supply a mid-scale LNG plant near Beinichuan in Inner Mongolia."This will be Linde’s seventh and largest LNG plant to date in China and is in response to growing demand from customers in China," said a release from the company.Linde's Engineering Division will be responsible for engineering, procurement and site services for the LNG plant with a nameplate capacity of 750,000 tons of liquefied natural gas per annum.The plant’s technology is based on Linde’s proprietary LIMUM process…

Oil traders from Texas to Louisiana braced on Tuesday for supply disruptions as Tropical Storm Cindy, formed in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, threatened to hit refining and production centers with wind and rain later this week. Cindy was located about 265 miles (430 km) south of Morgan City, Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles (75 km) per hour. It is expected to approach the coast of southwest Louisiana late Wednesday or Wednesday night, and move inland over western Louisiana and eastern Texas on Thursday, the NHC said. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the largest privately owned crude storage terminal in the United States…

GAIL India, largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company in India, will likely scrap the tender for hiring LNG ships after failing to negotiate acceptable terms with bidders in what would hurt India's ambition to build high-tech LNG carriers at home under the Make in India programme, reports the Economic Times. The oil marketing giant had issued a tender last September seeking to charter at least 9 LNG vessels to bring home from the US up to 5.8 million tonne of gas annually from early 2018. Successful bidders were supposed to locally build a third of all ships they make under the Make in India plan. GAIL received bids from 2 Japanese consortiums after the deadlines for submissions were extended more than once.

Enterprise Products Partners on Thursday said the first ship to load ethane for export from its new terminal on the Houston Ship Channel will arrive on Aug. 1, the first such export of the light natural gas liquid from the U.S. Gulf Coast. Exports from the terminal are expected to ramp up to 1.9 million barrels per month by the end of the year, executives said on Thursday during the company's second quarter earnings call. Enterprise said it was currently in the process of commissioning the ethane export facility, as well as its Waha natural gas processing plant in the Delaware Basin. The company also said three liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cargo loadings from its Houston Ship Channel export terminal were cancelled in July, and five have been cancelled in August.

At least two offshore oil platforms halted operations on Tuesday in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico after a fire at a natural gas processing plant in Mississippi shut a crucial pipeline that brings output onshore, several companies said. The fire at Enterprise Products Partners plant in Pascagoula was brought under control, but officials were still forced to close the 225-mile Destin gas pipeline system that can carry 1.2 billion cubic feet per day from offshore fields to Pascagoula. Destin, majority-owned by BP with Enbridge Inc a minority partner, said it was declaring force majeure, a legal clause that allows it to scrap commitments, as a result of the fire.

Strategic Marine announced the kick-off of its first collaboration with PT. Pelayaran Tanjung Kumawa, expecting to deliver an exclusive luxury crewboat in November this year. “The vessel is currently under construction at Strategic Marine’s facility in Vietnam,” said Rob Boersma, Senior Business Development Manager of Strategic Marine. The luxury crewboat will transfer crews from shore to LNG and natural gas processing plant in Indonesia’s oil and gas industry. Strategic Marine is working closely with Incat Crowther, the naval architect company appointed, to ensure the designs meeting all specific requirements. “This is Strategic’s first collaboration with PT.

GAIL India has deferred a USD 7-billion tender for hiring nine newly-built ships to ferry liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US by one month. Bids for the tender were to close on February 29 but now have been extended to March 31. The state gas utility is seeking 9 LNG ships of cargo capacity of 1,50,000-1,80,000 cubic metres to help transport LNG it has tied up from Sabine Pass and Cove Point LNG projects in the US, with supplies slated to start from December 2017. Press Trust of India quoted GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi as saying: "The postponement has been done at the request of bidders to allow them time to finalise their bids. GAIL India  is the largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company in India.

EXMAR stated that on June 23rd 2015 under the witness of King Philippe of Belgium and President Xi Jinping, Mr. Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of Board of ICBC and Mr. Nicolas Saverys, CEO of EXMAR, signed the financing agreement for the world’s first floating LNG unit (FLNG – Floating Liquefaction and Storage Unit). ICBC will provide financing to EXMAR for the FLNG project in a total amount of USD 200,000,000. up to now, and also the highest technology project. It is known that Belgium is China’s 5th biggest trading partner in the European Union, but the major exporting products to Belgium are low-level industrial products like steel and toys. The FLNG ordered by EXMAR is the world’s first floating natural gas liquefaction unit. offshore units.

Tropical Storm Bill punched the Texas coast with heavy rains and strong winds on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, just three weeks after floods killed about 30 people in the state. The second named tropical storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season made landfall near Matagorda, a sportfishing town near the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station in Bay City, a coastal nuclear power plant. Spokesman Buddy Eller said the plant had prepared for the storm and operations were normal with full staffing. Companies said output from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, which pumps about a fifth of all domestic crude, was unaffected. But BP Plc shut its Mad Dog and Atlantis fields early on Tuesday after a pipeline outage that was expected to be fixed soon, a source said.

Recent meetings between U.S. oil producers and Commerce Department officials have fueled industry hopes that the Obama administration may soon begin to ease a longstanding ban on oil exports. Although it would require an act of Congress to end the four-decade export ban, some analysts and executives believe the White House may be getting ready to open up the taps a bit, allowing some export of a super-light form of oil known as condensate, which falls into a regulatory gray area. Executives and sources said a number of major shale oil producers have quietly stepped up lobbying efforts over the contentious energy issue in recent weeks, meeting with officials from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which oversees exports.

A project consortium that includes RWE Dea has signed a major contract for the construction of a natural gas processing plant and infrastructure in the Algerian Sahara for the Reggane Nord project. The contract is valued at US$976 million and represents an important step forward for the project. Representatives of the Groupement Reggane of which RWE Dea is a partner signed the contract to construct the natural gas processing facilities and corresponding infrastructure including the gathering network and export pipeline on Thursday. The USDollar976 million contract was awarded to Petrofac International (UAE) LLC and stipulates completion of the facilities within 36 months. After completion the plant will be operated with a gas troughput capacity of around 283 million cubic feet per day.

An explosion on Wednesday rocked a natural gas-processing plant in Wyoming that can churn out about 2 percent of the daily U.S. gas supply, though no injuries were reported. The blast at the Williams Companies Inc plant in Opal, Wyoming, touched off a fire that was still burning several hours later, company spokeswoman Michele Swanersaid. She said all 42 employees of the evacuated plant had been accounted for and were not injured. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Department said the fire had been contained to one area of the plant. Shelters were set up for people in the town of 100 people and nearby Highway 30 was closed. The explosion, the second safety incident suffered by Williams Companies in the last few weeks, could lead to pockets of higher prices in parts of the United States.

Today, Gov. Bobby Jindal and IT Minerals LLC CEO Jose Domene announced a $4.5 million capital investment by the company in Louisiana, where IT Minerals will establish an importing, processing and exporting facility at the Port of New Orleans for minerals sourced from Mexico and other countries. The project will create 12 new direct jobs with an average annual salary of $34,000 a year, plus benefits. LED estimates the project will result in an additional 28 new indirect jobs, for a total of 40 new jobs in the Southeast Region. IT Minerals is a manufacturer of lightweight aggregates and fillers for polymer-based products; construction products; and insulation, filtration, textile, cryogenic, horticulture and gardening products. Gov.

Oil output (oil plus natural gas liquids - NGL) from all of Petrobras' fields in Brazil averaged 1.979 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, which is 3.7% higher than the average output of the previous month (1.908 million bpd). Petrobas explain that this positive result was due to the startup of new wells on platforms FPSO Cidade de Itajaí (Santos Basin), P-53 and P-54 (Campos Basin) and FPSO Piranema (Sergipe Basin). In line with the planned schedule, the maintenance stoppages in September of P-26 and P-35, both in Marlim, were concluded, as well as the activities related to the upcoming stoppage of P-51, in Marlim Sul, and of the natural gas processing plant UPGN2 in Urucu, in UO-AM. The highlight of the month was the pre-salt output record of 326,800 bpd.

FPSO 'Cidade de Paraty' went onstream to begin commercial production in the Santos Basin Lula Nordeste pre-salt. Cidade de Paraty is a FPSO platform (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel anchored at a water depth of 2,120 meters, some 300 km off the coast and has the capacity to process up to 120,000 barrels of oil and 5 million cubic meters of gas per day. The 7-LL-11-RJS, the first well to be connected to the platform, has the potential to produce 25,000 barrels per day. However, output in the first month of operation will be restricted to 13,000 barrels of oil per day, and ramped up as natural gas processing and reinjection systems are commissioned. The Lula Nordeste field produces high quality, medium density (29º API) crude which will be taken off by tankers.

According to a report on www.marketwatch.com, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. exceeded its annual order target of $11 billion by 9%, helped by two separate contracts totaling $1.95 billion. The contracts take orders to $12 billion as of Monday.  Daewoo will build a $550-million drill ship for an unnamed North American company by the first half of 2014 and a $1.4-billion offshore natural-gas-processing platform for Chevron Corp. by the second half, the report said, citing a company source.

Exmar announced the formation of an alliance to advance its efforts in the development of floating liquefaction solutions. Exmar has formalized a relationship with its long-time LNG partner, Excelerate, and with Black & Veatch, a provider of natural gas processing and liquefaction technology. “This partnership forms a basis for the development of the first floating liquefaction, storage and offloading solution in the world" said Nicolas Saverys, Chief Executive Officer of Exmar NV. The FLSO combines the liquefaction process, storage tanks, loading systems, and other LNG-related infrastructure into a single floating unit. Exmar is a diversified and independent shipping group serving the international gas and oil industry…

Nippon Steel Engineering Co. is bolstering its operating structure in a bid to win contracts spanning everything from design to construction of crude oil and natural gas processing facilities at sea. The Nippon Steel Corp. unit plans to win complete orders for marine central processing platforms, which extract carbon dioxide, mercury and impurities from crude and natural gas drilled from the seabed. To do so, it has beefed up the functions of an Indonesian subsidiary that handles sales and engineering in Southeast Asia and it will begin undertaking some design operations and such work as heat and pipe wear analyses that have been outsourced to date. On top of upgrading a Thai plant, the company has also been hiring local engineers experienced in building central processing platforms.