Chevron En-bridges the Gulf of Mexico

Chevron and Enbridge have signed a Letter of Intent to expand Enbridge’s Gulf of Mexico offshore pipeline system, which currently services Chevron’s Jack and St Malo gas fields.

The proposed Walker Ridge Gathering System (WRGS) will include approximately 306 km of 8, 10 or 12 inch diameter pipelines at depths of up to 2 km. The existing 1,578 km pipeline system has a capacity of 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas, and the WRGS would expand this by 100 million cubic feet per day of gas.

Enbridge has said that the WRGS is estimated to cost approximately $US500 million, subject to finalisation of the scope of the project.

Enbridge President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick D. Daniel said “The Walker Ridge Gathering System will tie in a new supply source for Enbridge’s Manta Ray and Nautilius offshore pipeline systems, enhancing Enbridge’s existing offshore pipeline business and establishing a strategic base for future growth opportunities in the ultra-deep Gulf of Mexico.”

China to lay pipelines from the Bay of Bengal

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has announced plans to construct parallel oil and gas pipelines from the Kyaukpyu deep-sea port on Burma’s Arakan Coast in the Bay of Bengal to Kunming, China.

The 1,100 km gas pipeline will connect to key blocks in Burma’s Shwe gas fields, carrying approximately 12 billion cubic metres per annum to Kunming.

The oil pipeline will reduce China’s dependence on transport through the Malacca Straits, through which 80 per cent of its 4 MMbbl/d oil imports currently pass. CNPC has said that when the pipelines are complete, Chinese tankers will offload up to 0.6 MMbbl/d of oil from West Asia and Africa at Kyaukpyu.

The pipelines are expected to be completed by 2013.

Algerian pipeline could feed gas to Europe

Algerian state energy company Sonatrach has awarded $US1.4 billion worth of contracts to Saipem and Petrojet for the construction of the GK3 Pipeline, connecting the Hassi R’Mel Gas Field, located 550 km south of Algiers, to El Kala, on the Algerian coast.

Eni subsidiary Saipem and Egypt’s Petrojet will each construct a section of the 784 km pipeline, Sonatrach has said. Petrojet will build the first two sections of the pipeline running 433 km from Hassi R’Mel to Mechatine, and Saipem is to construct the remaining section to Skikda port and El Kala, a total of 351 km.

The GK3 Pipeline will boost output from Hassi R’Mel to 9 billion cubic metres per annum. The additional capacity will be used to feed two Algerian power stations, the domestic gas network, an LNG terminal, and also fill the proposed Galsi pipeline linking Algeria to Spain.

Go west with South Stream

Russia’s Gazprom, Italian energy giant Eni and the Turkish Government have plans to jointly construct the South Stream Pipeline to carry Russian gas to Europe.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have signed an agreement providing for constructing part of the South Stream Pipeline through Turkish waters in the Black Sea.

The pipeline will run from Russia, 900 km under the Black Sea to the Bulgarian coast, where it will then split into two branches.

The south branch will run through Bulgaria and Greece, and then a subsea portion will reach Italy. The second branch will divert northward through Serbia and Hungary to Austria.

Previously, Eni and Gazprom agreed to increase the South Stream Pipeline’s capacity to 63 billion cubic metres per annum (Bcm/a) from the initially-planned 31 Bcm/a.