Oil and gas industry announcements: 17 December 2014

InterGen

InterGen has announced that its Altamira Compression Station in Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico, is now operational. The 40 000 hp compression stations will support transporting up to 1.3 million ft3/d of natural gas in Mexico’s pipeline system. Located in the port of Altamira, the Altamira Compression Station is a key piece of Mexico’s natural gas plan to increase the availability of this clean fuel to support the country’s growing requirements. The station will provide gas compression services largely for the Federal Electricity Commission, the Mexican state owned electric utility.

Piedmont

Piedmont Natural gas has filed for reductions in its natural gas sales rates for customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. Last week’s filings before both the North Carolina Utilities Commission and the Public Service Commission of South Carolina reflect declines in the company’s wholesale natural gas costs, which are passed through to customers on a dollar for dollar basis.

Shell

Up to 15 000 Iraqi oil and gas workers will be trained in how to deal safely with the potential hazards of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Shell and oil and gas training standards body, OPITO, have jointed forces to ensure workers are trained to the globally recognised H2S standard. A corrosive and hazardous gas, also known as sour gas, H2S occurs in the production of oil and gas fields which have a high content of this gas in their reservoirs. This is the first industry led training programme to be rolled out across Iraq since OPITO signed an agreement with The Ministry of Oil to help develop the country’s local workforce with the necessary skills and training to safely utilise Iraq’s hydrocarbon resources and provide qualifications needed for Iraqi’s to access jobs in the country’s energy sector.

Tall Oak Midstream

Tall Oak Midstream has officially gone live with new GasStream software from Energy Solutions International (ESI). Based in Edmonton, Oklahoma, Tall Oak is one of the fastest growing midstream companies in the Midcontinent and serves multiple producers across Oklahoma. Following a successful 12 week pilot, Tall Oak entered into a hosted, subscription based agreement with ESI for full commercial utilisation of the GasStream software for all of its natural gas gathering and processing assets, effective 1 December. Developed for midstream companies using state of the art technology, the GasStream software is ESI’s advanced transaction and volumetric accounting system.

UOP

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has announced that UOP C3 Oleflex process technology started up and has been successfully operating in Russia, producing quality propylene to help meet the global supply shortage of the valuable plastics building block. Russia’s OOO Tobolsk-Polymer facility, which became the largest Oleflex production unit in the world, is meeting design capacity of 510 000 tpy of propylene at its facility in Western Siberia.

The C3 Oleflex process uses catalytic dehydrogenation to convert propane to propylene. Compared with competing processes, UOP’s C2 Oleflex technology provides the lowest cash cost of production, the highest return on investment and the smallest environmental footprint. This superior performance is characterised by low capital cost, high propylene yields, low energy and water consumption, and use of a fully recyclable platinum alumina based catalyst system. In addition to the C3 Oleflex process, UOP also licenses its C4 Oleflex technology, a butane dehydrogenation process to convert isobutene to isobutylene.

World Point Terminals

World Point Terminals LP, a Delaware limited partnership, has announced that it has entered into a contribution agreement to acquire a terminal in Greensboro, NC from a subsidiary of Apex Oil Company, Inc, an affiliate of the general partner of the Partnership and holder of 20% of the Partnership’s incentive distribution rights. The facility has a total shell capacity of 684 000 bbls. The partnership will issue 1.550 million common units to Apex, representing approximately US$29.4 million in total consideration, based on the volume weighted average unit price during the 10 trading days ending 15 December.

Edited from various press releases by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/17122014/oil-gas-announcements-17-dec/