Pipeline Operator News

Exxon and Canada-based crude pipeline operator Enbridge were sued in Illinois federal court on Tuesday over claims they barred a competitor from building a terminal to ship oil by barge from the Chicago area to refineries in the Midwest and Gulf of Mexico.The antitrust lawsuit from energy infrastructure developer Ducere seeks more than $11 million in damages for work the Illinois company said it already paid for on the project and for lost future profits.Exxon, Enbridge and their…

Chevron is sending cargoes of Kazakhstan's CPC Blend oil to Asia around Africa's Cape of Good Hope rather than via the Red Sea to avoid the risk of attacks by Yemen’s Houthis, according to three industry sources and LSEG ship-tracking data.The Iranian-aligned Houthis have stepped up attacks on shipping despite U.S.-led air strikes on the group's positions in Yemen, leading more vessels to avoid using the Red Sea and the Suez Canal - the shortest sea route between Europe and Asia.CPC Blend crude is loaded at the Russian Black Sea terminal of Yuzhnaya Ozereevka, near Novorossisk.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending new notification alarms and procedures for potential incursions on pipelines and a change to an anchorage off the California coast following a crude oil release in 2021 caused by ship anchors damaging an underwater pipeline.NTSB investigators determined that the oil leak, which began on October 1, 2021, in San Pedro Bay, resulted from an anchor strike on the pipeline that occurred eight months earlier, when anchors…

President Vladimir Putin signed on Wednesday a decree transferring to Russia's state nuclear power company Rosatom state-owned shares of the Far Eastern Shipping Company, parent company of transportation group Fesco.Fesco was formerly controlled by Ziyavudin Magomedov, who was convicted last year on organized crime and embezzlement charges and is serving a 19-year jail sentence following one of the highest-profile prosecutions of a Russian tycoon in years.Magamedov says the charges are unfounded and is appealing his conviction.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Tuesday that China was cooperating in Finland's investigation of the Hong Kong-flagged NewNew Polar Bear vessel's role in the Oct. 8 damage to the Balticconnector pipeline.Finnish police leading the criminal investigation have named the NewNew Polar Bear container carrier as the prime suspect in damaging the gas pipeline early on Oct. 8, saying it was too early to tell if this was an accident or a deliberate act.A large anchor, believed to belong to the NewNew Polar Bear…

Russian tycoon Ziyavudin Magomedov, jailed at home in Russia, has launched a London lawsuit seeking nearly $14 billion over his holdings in valuable port operators, which he says were seized as part of a state-backed conspiracy.The businessman filed the lawsuit at London's High Court on July 20 against several defendants, including Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom, oil pipeline operator Transneft, private equity firm TPG, and UAE-based port operator DP World.Magomedov…

A new floating reception terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) off the German Baltic Coast should be operational from the first quarter of 2024, gas pipeline operator Gascade, which is building its onshore connection, said on Wednesday.Located off Mukran on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, the terminal will host two floating storage and reception units (FSRUs) for LNG deliveries into the German mainland and for exports to eastern European neighbours, as the region ends reliance on Russian pipeline gas."All things going well…

Poland's Orlen has signed a contract with state-owned pipeline operator Gaz-System for the regasification of up to 58 liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes per year at a planned floating gas terminal, the energy company said on Friday.Poland has turned to seaborne LNG as well as gas piped from Norway via Denmark and the Baltic Sea to replace supply from Russia.The planned terminal is to be built on the Baltic Sea near Gdansk by the end of 2027 with an initial regasification capacity…

GAIL (India) Ltd is close to finalizing a long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deal with Qatar to buy at least 1 million metric tons per year, potentially for more than 20 years, three industry and trade sources said.The deal would be part of GAIL's plans to lock in new supply contracts by 2030 to diversify its gas imports and hedge against supply disruptions like those seen after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, when LNG prices surged to a record high.Neither state…

Egypt’s SUMED pipeline operator Arab Petroleum Pipeline Company (SUMED) has completed the tailshaft conversion to Thordon’s SXL seawater-lubricated bearing system for seven special purpose single point mooring (SPM) service boats.The final vessel in a series of 17.5m (57.4ft) long, 1976–built service boats had its original oil-lubricated tailshaft bearings replaced with the Thordon system at Nefertiti Marine’s Yard-K, in Rosetta Nile, in December 2022. The first vessel, SUMED 10…

Enterprise Products Partners' Sea Port crude oil export terminal off the coast of Texas could begin operations between the second half of 2026 and early 2027, the pipeline operator's co-CEO said on Thursday. The terminal, planned for about 30 miles (48 km) off the coast of Texas, is one of several deepwater projects proposed at the height of the U.S. shale oil production boom. Enterprise Co-CEO Jim Teague disclosed the proposed Sea Port Oil Terminal's start date at an RBN Energy export conference in Houston.

Shareholders of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline operator are discussing how to seal and empty the damaged gas pipeline to halt corrosion from sea water, said the chief financial officer of E.ON, one of the owners.The chief financial officer of E.ON, one of the stakeholders, told reporters at the group's results news conference that it was unclear whether the pipeline would be repaired but that any forthcoming decisions are likely to be made with the support of all shareholders."We continue to exercise our rights as a minority shareholder in the Nord Stream 1 operating company.

A flood of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects due online worldwide in mid-decade will vie against lower-cost renewable energy and a revived nuclear power sector, which could rock gas prices and hurt some proposed projects, analysts say.Proposed and approved new LNG plants would boost LNG supply by 67% increase to 636 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030 from 2021 levels, potentially saturating the gas market."There's over a trillion dollars of natural gas infrastructure being built in the world today.

California officials [last] Thursday said Amplify Energy Corp agreed to plead no contest to six criminal charges and pay nearly $5 million in penalties and fines in connection with a crude oil spill last year that killed birds and fouled beaches.The announcement was the latest legal effort to hold the Texas-based oil company accountable for a subsea pipeline leak that released some 558 barrels (25,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Huntington Beach in southern California in October of last year.At a news conference broadcast live on the internet…

Russian and Kazakh oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) Black Sea terminal face at least one month's disruption each once repairs begin on two of its three single point moorins (SPMs), CPC confirmed on Tuesday.Oil exports via the two SPMs have been suspended due to equipment damaged by bad winter weather, CPC said on Monday, confirming a Reuters report on Saturday.CPC added that a planned inspection of the third SPM at the Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka terminal would require it to be temporarily shut for a matter of hours.

NYK signed a multi-year time-charter contract with GAIL (India) Limited, India's largest natural gas company, for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier. Grace Emilia, the vessel that will be chartered, is equipped with a WinGD-made dual-fuel slow-speed X-DF diesel engine, a unit that has superior fuel-consumption efficiency and can operate on marine gas oil or boil off gas stored in the cargo tank. The vessel also features a re-liquefaction system that can use re-liquefied excess boil-off gas and return it to the cargo tank.The cargo tank has a 174,000 cu.

Germany said on Sunday it was continuing to work closely with the United States on implementing a deal on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea and carries gas from Russia to Germany.Germany's foreign ministry said it continued to coordinate closely with the U.S. administration on implementing a joint declaration on the $11 billion pipeline.The Biden administration has waived sanctions on the pipeline operator and made a deal with Germany in July, although…

Amplify Energy Corp withdrew its full-year forecast on Monday, saying that a large oil spill from one of its subsea pipelines in southern California last month forced it to shut its operations in the region.In mid-October, the U.S. Coast Guard said about 588 barrels (25,000 gallons) of crude oil was spilt, about a fifth as much as it initially estimated, from a pipeline connected to an offshore facility owned by Amplify's unit.The oil and gas producer said on Monday that it was under multiple investigations by state and federal authorities over the incident…

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded a container ship on Saturday in the Port of Long Beach that dragged its anchor close to a subsea pipeline found to be the source of an oil spill off Orange County, California, it said in a press release.The spill released some 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife, blackening the coastline and forcing officials to close beaches south of Los Angeles.In its statement, the Coast Guard said an investigation had determined that the MSC DANIT was involved in the anchor-dragging incident "during a heavy weather event" that impacted Long Beach and Los Angeles ports in January.As a result…

Beaches in a southern California city that were shut because of an oil spill last week are set to reopen on Monday morning, authorities said in a statement.City and state beaches of Huntington Beach city will reopen as water quality testing showed no detectable amounts of oil associated toxins in ocean water, officials from the city and California State Parks said.Last week, some 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil spilled into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife, soiling the coastline and forcing officials to close beaches in the cities of Huntington Beach…

The company that operates the pipeline that spilled an estimated 3,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific Ocean off California has an 800-page manual on handling an oil spill - but it is unclear whether its employees followed those procedures.Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp and several state and federal regulatory agencies have provided differing accounts of what happened on Oct. 2, when the pipeline spill that fouled beaches, killed wildlife, and closed down fishing along miles of coastline was officially reported.The U.S.

Widespread flooding from Hurricane Ida and power outages slowed efforts on Tuesday by energy firms to assess damages at oil production facilities, ports, and refineries.Nearly all of Louisiana lost electrical power on Monday after one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the region downed transmission lines and flooded communities. Coastal areas were swamped by a storm surge so great it reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.Analysts said it could take two to three weeks to restart producing platforms and fully resume output at Louisiana refineries.

The much-politicized Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is 99% complete, the pipeline operator said on Wednesday, after the pipelay vessel Akademik Cherskiy finished its initially planned workload.The $11 billion Nord Stream 2, designed to bypass Russia's political foe Ukraine and double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline to 110 billion cubic meters per year, has been a focal point of tensions between Moscow and Washington.The construction of the pipeline has been hampered by sanctions introduced by the United States at the end of 2019…