· Michels senior strategic advisor and member of this magazine’s Editorial Ad-visory Board,...

4 North American Oil & Gas Pipelines | NOVEMBER 2012 napipelines.com

FEATURES

26Maintaining a MIG GunSimple tips for getting the best welding performance from your equipment.By Andy Monk

30Training for IntegrityNACE promotes the importance of corrosion control to pipeline integrity.By Alysa Reich

342012 U.S. Natural Gas Pipeline ReportThe fourth installment of a quarterly report on recent and forthcoming pipeline projects to develop natural gas infrastructure in the United States.By Bradley Kramer

38Made to OrderUnique equipment excels on a multi-million dollar natural gas project in Pennsylvania.By Tim Adkisson

November 2012Volume 5 Issue 11Published by Benjamin Media Inc.

North American Oil & Gas Pipelines (ISSN 2166-6334) is published twelve times per year. Copyright 2012, Benjamin Media Inc., 10050 Brecksville Rd., Brecksville, OH 44141 USA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means without written permission from the publisher. One year subscription rates: complimentary in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Single copy rate: $10. Subscriptions and classified advertising should be addressed to the Peninsula office. POSTMASTER: send Changes of Address to North American Oil & Gas Pipelines, P.O. Box 190, Peninsula OH 44264 USA.

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North American Oil & Gas Pipelines Magazine is not affiliated or associated with North American Pipe Corporation of Houston, Texas.

DEPARTMENTS 8 News

18 Project Roundup

20 IPLOCA Newsletter

42 Product Showcase

46 Calendar

COLUMNS 6 Editor’s Message

MARKETPLACE

45 Business Cards

46 Index of Advertisers

ON ThE COvER: Buster Gray commands the respect of his peers in the oil and gas pipeline industry. When his name was nominated for the inaugural Business Achievement Award, he was the unanimous choice by the NAOGP Editorial Advisory Board.

22 BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER L.A. “Buster” Gray Honoring a career marked by integrity and passion.By Bradley Kramer


Honoring Achievement in the Industry

This is a very exciting issue. As North American Oil & Gas Pipelines has continued to expand, our staff wanted to find a way to honor those in the industry who have exemplified leadership and promoted innovation. As such, we have implemented the Business Achievement Award, which will be bestowed annually to an individual (or com-pany) who has had a lasting and meaningful impact with-in the oil and gas sector.

In an era that has seen unprecedented scrutiny of infrastructure projects, from the public, activists and governmental agencies, the business of oil and gas pipelines increasingly requires greater safety and integrity measures to en-sure reliable facilities. Meanwhile, the industry faces a shortage of qualified personnel, as an aging workforce inches closer to retirement without a new crop of pipeline professionals to fill their ranks.

The inaugural winner of the Business of Achievement Award is Buster Gray, a 35-year veteran of the industry who embodies all the characteristics we looked for in a leader. His peers view him as fair-minded and knowledgeable, while he displays unquestionable passion for pipelines. His resume speaks for itself, as he has served as an engineer, director and consultant on a number of high-profile and innovative pipeline projects.

At his latest position with MPS Constructors LLC, Gray has worked on TransCanada’s oft-mentioned Keystone XL project. Before that, he was in-volved with building the U.S. portion of the Keystone mainline from the Ca-nadian border in North Dakota to Patoka, Ill., as well as the Cushing Extension from Steele City, Neb., to Cushing, Okla. His career highlights also include a five-year stint in China, building some of the first large-diameter pipelines in that country. He has been a part of numerous “firsts” in the industry that have now become standard practice, including mechanized welding and the use of ultrasonic testing.

While Gray expressed concern for a number of challenges facing the indus-try, he stressed the importance of cooperation among all pipeline stakeholders in resolving a number of troubling trends. As he transitions into a new role at a pipeline engineering services company, Gray will no doubt continue as a leader among the pipelining ranks.

Michels senior strategic advisor and member of this magazine’s Editorial Ad-visory Board, Robert Westphal commended Gray for his fairness and trustwor-thiness when dealing with various project stakeholders. Westphal’s relation-ship with Gray dates back to the late 1980s and has grown closer throughout the years.

“Generally speaking, Buster has always been a really good, honest person when dealing with people in the industry,” he says. “He has always been highly respected throughout the industry.”

We’re proud to feature Mr. Gray on the cover of this issue, honoring him as our first-ever Business Achievement Award winner.

Brad KramerAssociate [email protected]

Publisher Bernard P. Krzys

Associate Publisher Robert D. Krzys

Editor James W. Rush

Associate Editor Bradley Kramer

Contributing Staff Editors Sharon M. Bueno

Andrew Farr Keith Gribbins Pam Kleineke Kelly Pickerel

Production Manager Chris Slogar

Graphic Designers Sarah E. Haughawout

Elizabeth C. Stull

Marketing Director Kelly Dadich

Regional Sales Managers Ryan Sneltzer

Dan Sisko

Audience Development Manager Alexis R. White

Web & Interactive Manager Mark Gorman

Conference Manager Melanie Roddy

Editorial Advisory Board

Cortez Perotte Pipeline Product Engineer/Industry Representative,

Caterpillar Inc.

Todd Porter Vice President of Business Development,

New Century Software Inc.

Eric Skonberg Principal Engineer, Trenchless Engineering Corp.

Don W. Thorn President, Welded Construction LP

Kevin Waschuk Vice President, Waschuk Pipe Line Construction Ltd.

Bob Westphal Senior Strategic Advisor, Michels Corp.

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BPA Worldwide Membership Applied for in February 2012

Editor’s Message


North America News

Deepwater drilling is making a swift re-covery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and the success of a lease sale in the central part of the Gulf has helped to reaffirm inter-est from oil and gas giants, according to a report by industry experts GlobalData.

The new report shows that the deep-water Gulf of Mexico continues to play a vital role in the matter of U.S. energy security, contributing substantially to the country’s total oil production. The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in April 2010 had a massive impact on exploration and production activities, as the U.S. gov-ernment imposed a temporary mora-torium and investments ground to a halt. Despite this, an incredible recov-ery can be seen from new lease sales occurring over the last few months.

The deepwater Gulf of Mexico boasts large-scale, commercially ex-ploitable quantities of hydrocarbons and forms part of the “golden trian-gle” with other deep offshore discov-eries in West Africa and Brazil. Explo-ration of hydrocarbons in the Gulf started in the 1970s, when declining

exploration activity in the region’s shallow waters led operators to search further out at sea, and new deepwa-ter discoveries have re-established its potential numerous times since then.

The latest 216/222 lease sale in the central Gulf of Mexico in June 2012 was extremely successful, with the U.S. government receiving $1.7 billion from the winning bids. High oil prices, recent deepwater discoveries in the area and pent-up demand for explora-tion tracts in the Gulf worked to make this lease sale a victory. In total, 56 oil and gas companies submitted 593 bids for 454 tracts in the Gulf, over a total area of more than 2.4 million acres.

Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC present-ed the highest recorded bid for a sin-gle lease, with a $157 million bid for a block in the Mississippi Canyon area. The success of the lease sale proves that oil and gas companies still hold interest in the exploration of the Gulf, and are confident about meeting the new regulations imposed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon rig tragedy.

The share of total U.S. consumption

met by liquid fuel net imports of both crude oil and products has been fall-ing since peaking at over 60 percent in 2005. In 2011, it averaged 45 percent, down from 49 percent in 2010. The U.S. Energy Information Administra-tion’s latest report, “Short-Term Energy and Winter Fuels Outlook,” indicates that the total net import share of con-sumption will continue to decline to 41 percent in 2012 and to 39 percent in 2013 because of the substantial increas-es in domestic crude oil production. If the 2013 forecast holds true, it would be the first time the share of total U.S. consumption met by liquid fuel net im-ports is less than 40 percent since 1991.

Crude oil and natural gas produc-tion in the deepwater Gulf of Mex-ico increased at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 1.6 percent during 2007-2011, from 504.1 mil-lion barrels of oil equivalent (MM-boe) in 2007 to 536.6 MMboe by the end of 2011. Production is expected to increase at an AAGR of 2.2 percent during 2011 to 2020, to reach 657.0 MMboe by the end of 2020.

Success of Lease Sale Proves Deepwater Drilling Remains Popular

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has made a strong comeback since BP’s Deepwater Horizon incident in April 2010.

New Company to Train Future Industry Leaders

The future of the oil and gas indus-try is uncertain, with an aging work-force and a shortage of new leaders. Seven key industry leaders have come together and founded Energy Training Solutions with the goal of educating new entrants to industry.

With a combined experience of more than 200 years in the oil and gas indus-try, Energy Training Solutions (ETS) fea-tures a dedicated team of trainers: Joyce Thomas, Peter Kosewicz, Jane Williams, P.E., Gregg Perkin, P.E., and Greg Mc-Cormack. Altogether these educators/trainers cover all segments of the indus-try, including upstream (exploration and production), midstream (pipelines and gas plants) and the downstream (refining and petrochemicals). It is the depth of their experience that makes ETS unique in the industry.

All five educators/trainers are well recognized in the industry for their experience and dedication by serving on numerous committees to make the industry safer and more productive. These educators/trainers have worked in operations, design, technical assur-ance, and health, safety and environ-ment areas for the oil and gas industry.

All the employees of ETS share a pas-sion and a commitment to training. It is the very reason why the company was founded. The company is committed to providing the most up to date training to the highest industry standards. Con-tent and delivery of the training will always be the most important driving force behind all ETS courses.

“The way we measure excellence is the effect that our training has on our client’s success in meeting their person-al goals and the corporate goals where they work, and we believe strongly that effective training has to deliver results both personally and professionally,” said McCormack, a company partner. “And we stand behind this belief.”

From the field to the boardroom, ETS offers a full suite of oil and gas training courses. The company has the exper-tise to teach oil and gas courses starting with drilling, completions, all phases of production, custody transfer measure-ment of oil and gas, gas plant and refin-ery operations. ETS currently offers and delivers customized programs for sev-eral large corporations in the industry.

The ETS training team has devel-oped training methods that are tai-lored to different learning styles, avoiding a “one size fits all” approach.

ETS will also feature the Rig School at the company’s Houston office and in London. The program will focus on the offshore industry, where unique chal-lenges exist to drilling, particularly in deep water. This course explains how oil and gas wells are drilled in a marine environment and the unique challeng-es that must be overcome. This course will also help corporations understand why insurance claims are so high.

Platts Introduces Independent Price References for Eagle Ford Shale

Global energy industry information provider Platts has launched the first independent daily price assessment of crude oil produced from the Eagle Ford shale formation in Texas. The new assessment is called the Platts Eagle Ford Marker.

“Not only are shale crudes an impor-tant supply source as the U.S. contin-ues its path toward less dependence on foreign oil imports, but they are also critical to U.S. refiners as they export more light petroleum products,” said Esa Ramasamy, regional director of Americas oil price reporting at Platts. “We’re pleased to play a key role in bringing price transparency to this im-portant, booming supply source.”

The Platts Eagle Ford Marker will reflect the value of a median 47-API Eagle Ford crude barrel, based on the crude’s product yields and Platts prod-uct price assessments, adjusted for U.S. Gulf Coast logistics.

“We’re taking a pioneering approach to unconventional oil,” said Suzanne Evans, senior manager for the Americas price group at Platts. “This methodol-ogy provides a products yield-based as-sessment for Eagle Ford crude of normal properties. This will help the market es-tablish a benchmark value for Eagle Ford, despite the stream’s inherent variability.”

Simultaneously, Platts is also launch-ing a daily average of Eagle Ford crude postings from midstream companies to serve as a basis of comparison, and a differential for this daily postings value relative to the Platts Eagle Ford Marker.

BENTEK Energy, Platts’ market ana-lytics division, estimates that rising production in both Eagle Ford and the Bakken shale plays could boost over-all U.S. crude production by as much as 3.5 million barrels per day by 2016 — 1.6 million barrels per day for Eagle Ford alone. The Eagle Ford shale play extends across south Texas and into

Mexico, and contains substantial de-posits of oil, condensate, natural gas liquids and natural gas.

Numerous infrastructure develop-ments including additional pipeline and expanded rail capacity have been launched in recent years to support shale oil’s growing production. Ad-ditional projects from the shale play areas have been proposed, which will strengthen the importance of shale oil on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where the bulk of U.S. refining capacity is located.

United Refining Affiliate to Purchase Phillips 66 Long Island Terminal

Phillips 66 and United Riverhead Ter-minal Inc., an affiliate of United Refin-ing Co. of Warren, Pa., entered into an agreement on Oct. 9 for the purchase of Phillips 66’s Riverhead, N.Y., marine pe-troleum terminal and associated assets. The transaction was expected to close at the end of October depending upon regulatory approval. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Riverhead terminal is located on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., approximately 80 miles east of New York Harbor. The facility encompasses 280 acres and has over 5 million bar-rels of petroleum storage capability. The Riverhead marine terminal is used as a storage and trans-shipment hub for crude, heavy fuels, diesel and gasoline, and the offshore marine platform is the only deepwater loading and unloading platform on the U.S. East Coast.

With an operating draft of 64 ft, the terminal’s offshore platform routinely receives Suezmax vessels and is capa-ble of handling VLCC tankers.

“We are pleased to add the Riverhead Terminal to our operations,” said John A. Catsimatidis, chairman and CEO of United Refining Co. “We will be able to provide storage and terminaling services to a wide variety of customers throughout the world. Current River-head Terminal Supervisor Dan Gianfal-la will continue to manage the facility for us with his highly trained crew.”

The sale of the Riverhead Terminal is part of Phillips 66’s ongoing strategy to divest assets that don’t fit the company’s long-term objectives, according to Tim Taylor, executive vice president of Com-mercial, Marketing, Transportation and Business Development for Phillips 66.

Moelis & Co. served as advisor to United and Bank of America Merrill Lynch served as advisor to Phillips 66.


API: Federal Rules Hamper Energy Development, Jobs

Energy industry advocates are fed up with the U.S. federal governments approach to regulations and develop-ment initiatives.

Two American Petroleum Insti-tute (API) representatives, director of upstream Erik Milito and director of regulatory and scientific affairs Howard Feldman, said that the ad-ministration’s policies on improving

regulations and encouraging domes-tic oil and natural gas development continue to hamper energy produc-tion and job creation and threaten to leave the nation with a less secure energy future.

”We have seen numerous examples of regulatory decisions that simply move in the wrong direction and that contribute to uncertainty and inef-ficiency,” Milito said. “These include the administration’s status quo five-year plan for offshore development, its decisions to withdraw and delay

the issuance of leases for federal on-shore lands, its decision to redo its commercial oil shale regulations, its policies on ‘wild lands’ and categori-cal exclusions, its delayed action on seismic activity in the Atlantic and, of course, its failure to approve the Key-stone XL pipeline.”

Milito suggested that smart and cost-effective regulatory programs could help drive the U.S. economy forward by boosting jobs, generat-ing revenue and enhancing energy security.

”This is a global industry,” Feldman said. “Domestic refineries compete in a global marketplace. Now is not the time to impose still more require-ments unless the need is indisputable. Yet that is exactly what the adminis-tration seems bent on doing. A slew of new rules, applicable only to U.S. refineries but not their competitors overseas, threaten to put some U.S. refiners out of business, diminish U.S. fuel manufacturing capacity and in-crease our reliance on imported fuels.”

Feldman said the industry as a whole understands that addressing environmental challenges is a must, but U.S. refineries “don’t need exces-sively costly regulations that do not account for progress already made.” He said the U.S. government should avoid regulations that are made without sound science-based justifi-cation or regulations for the sake of regulations.

“Our industry supports 9.2 mil-lion jobs,” Feldman said. “With the right policies, it can preserve those and create many more. The admin-istration needs to take its ideological blinders off and not squander this opportunity.”

Equal Energy Announces Closing of Deal to Acquire Canadian Assets

Equal Energy Ltd. confirmed the sale of its Halkirk/Alliance/Wain-wright/Clair assets, aka “HAWC,” and substantially all remaining Canadian non-producing assets has closed on Oct. 15. Cash proceeds were $15.4 mil-lion compared to $17.4 million pursu-ant to the company’s press release on Oct. 1, due to adjustments based on final due diligence conducted by the purchaser.

Equal will apply the proceeds to re-duce the amount drawn on its bank credit facility to approximately $55


million. Equal’s bank lenders are currently reviewing the limit on the bank credit facility subsequent to the sale of the company’s Northern Okla-homa assets in September and the Canadian asset sale.

The HAWC disposition is the sec-ond step in Equal’s ongoing strategic review process. Company manage-ment and a special committee formed by the board of directors continue to review opportunities for the compa-ny’s remaining assets.

The company’s portfolio of assets now consists of the liquids rich natu-ral gas asset in central Oklahoma, the Cardium light oil play in the Lochend area of Alberta and certain royalty in-terests in Canada. Adjusting for this sale and the previously announced sale of northern Oklahoma, Equal’s current corporate production is ap-proximately 8,300 barrels of oil per day, consisting of 48 percent natural gas, 45 percent natural gas liquids and 7 percent oil.

Equal is an exploration and pro-duction oil and gas company based in Calgary, Alberta, with its U.S. op-erations office located in Oklahoma City, Okla.

CartoPac Strengthens Mobile Asset Management Leadership Team

Field asset data collection provider CartoPac International, which sup-plies the oil and gas industry, made two key personnel changes that the company hopes will strengthen its position in mobile asset management.

Carl Lee is stepping into the role of CEO. His top-level management experi-ence is very extensive and includes serv-ing as CFO and CEO of several high-tech companies. He was a management consulting partner at Ernst & Young, where his focus was emerging and mid-size technology companies. As CFO he helped grow Brocade Communications Systems Inc. from startup to a major business in the fiber channel switch market. Lee played a key role in taking Brocade public in 1999. He has worked with CartoPac since 2001, where he also serves as chairman of the board.

Brian Noyle has been selected as CartoPac’s new director of develop-ment. Noyle is a GIS solutions expert with 10 years of experience in solu-tions development and architecture.

His papers are frequently presented at conferences around the world, and he is well known for promoting and fa-cilitating a closer integration between GIS teams and IT organizations.

“CartoPac’s proven strength is in the mobile asset management arena,” Lee said. “Our recent leadership changes will improve our focus there.”

CartoPac Mobile helps companies leverage investments in GIS solutions into the mobile asset space. Its field as-set data collection workflows are based on oil and gas industry best practices while remaining easily configurable to meet specific business needs.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to contribute in an area of great in-terest to me,” Noyle said. “CartoPac’s mobile technologies help companies achieve significant cost benefits in field asset data collection, in part be-cause there is no programming or ex-pensive customization – it’s all done with configuration tools. My team will expand on this to develop more out-of-the-box solutions to address specific customer needs.”

CartoPac expects to announce mul-tiple commercial “off the shelf” solu-tions later in the year.

napipelines.com NOVEMBER 2012 | North American Oil & Gas Pipelines 13

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Conference Targets Emerging Issues in Natural Gas Development

On Oct. 23, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP convened a con-ference of key members of the oil and gas industry and energy-intensive manufacturing industries. The seminar, called Hydraulic Fracturing, Natural Gas and the U.S. Man-ufacturing Renaissance, took place at the Ronald Reagan Building and drew over 60 companies and trade associa-tions involved in the oil and gas industry or in industries benefitting from a thriving domestic natural gas market.

Participants included energy-intensive industries, manu-facturers that use natural gas as a feedstock and companies that sell products and materials into the natural gas mar-ket. They were joined by representatives from federal, state, and local government, labor representatives, and numerous members of the oil and gas industry.

“Technologies like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have unlocked untapped natural gas resources,” explained John Wittenborn, practice group leader for Kel-ley Drye’s Environmental and Natural Resources section and author of Industry blog, www.frackinginsider.com. “The availability of these resources has been a tremendous cata-lyst for growth in a number of domestic industries that oth-erwise would have contracted in this recession.”

Seminar participants heard from a number of the indus-tries that are growing as a result of natural gas development. Those participants include:

• Steven J. Adelkoff, president of Pittsburgh’s Renewable Manu-facturing Gateway and CFO of Aither Chemicals, which has

plans to construct a catalytic ethane cracker in the Kanawha Valley region of West Virginia.

• Douglas Polk, vice president of V&M Star, which produces pipe for the oil and gas industry and is spending hun-dreds of millions of dollars to expand its operations in Youngstown, Ohio.

Other participants included:

• Rep. James Keffer, chairman of the Texas House Commit-tee on Energy Resources and the author of one of the first state disclosure laws for hydraulic fracturing fluid.

• Richard Ranger, senior policy director for the American Petroleum Institute.

• Sarah Magruder Lyle, vice president of America’s Natural Gas Alliance.

• Tim Dickson, executive director of Oil and Natural Gas Industry Labor Management Committee.

• Eric Planey, vice president of International Business At-traction for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.

“We were fortunate to be able to bring together such a knowledgeable and diverse group of presenters,” said Dana Wood, director of Kelley Drye’s Government Relations and Public Policy practice group. “There is no better way to un-derstand the game-changing impact that domestic natural gas development can have on our economy than to hear it from the industry experts and from the companies and communi-ties that are leading America’s manufacturing renaissance.”

Kelley Drye billed the event as first in a series of discus-sions aimed at helping those industries that benefit from a thriving domestic natural gas industry understand and engage in the dialogue on hydraulic fracturing and natural gas development.

Renita Durbin Joins J&J Technical Services

J&J Technical Services LLC (JJ Tech) announced that Re-nita Durbin has joined the company’s team of artificial lift sales professionals. Durbin will be responsible for business development in Louisiana. She has 15 years of experience in the oil industry spanning the areas of health, safety, environ-ment and quality (HSEQ), lease acquisition and transporta-tion logistics.

“We are delighted to welcome Renita Durbin to our team,” said JJ Tech president Mark F. Preddy. “Her extensive HSE experience fits well with JJ Tech’s commitment to provide safe, environmentally friendly, production systems for our customers.”

Durbin said her experience a health, safety and environ-mental coordinator exposed her to the difficulties prevalent in the industry.

“I have gained compassion for the industry and its chal-lenges,” she said. “The JJ Tech ULTRA-FLO system is an ar-tificial lift application that accomplishes the operator’s ob-jectives in a more economical and environmentally friendly manner because it eliminates the costly downtime for repairs that cause a loss in production and possible damage to the environment.”

JJ Tech is a U.S.-based, world-wide supplier of artificial lift systems to the oil and gas industry. The company current-ly has eight international and U.S. distributors, three new pending international distributors and approximately 200 hydraulic jet pumps placed throughout the world.


J.P. Morgan Announces Middle Market Oil and Gas Team

J.P. Morgan has hired five expe-rienced energy bankers to form a middle market oil and gas finance team, expanding the firm’s robust energy sector business.

Based in Houston, the team will be dedicated to providing financial services to meet the complex bank-ing needs of primarily private oil and gas companies with producing assets in the United States. This new group is in addition to J.P. Morgan’s well-established Corporate Client Banking Energy team, which serves large energy companies with ex-pected capital markets needs.

“Creating this team allows us to serve this industry more broadly by designating resources specifi-cally focused on private oil and gas companies in the U.S.,” said David Mendez, South regional manager of Chase middle market banking. “Our bankers have spent their careers in the energy business and will use their experience and the global re-sources of J.P. Morgan to help our clients succeed.”

Energy finance veteran Patrick McWilliams will lead the middle market oil and gas team. He spent the last 12 years serving upstream oil, gas and power companies in a number of leadership roles, most re-cently as a member of the corporate finance team at Scotia Bank where he was responsible for executing se-nior secured debt transactions and identifying acquisition and dives-ture opportunities for energy com-panies.

Greg Determann joins the team as a senior vice president serving en-ergy and petroleum companies in California, Colorado, Louisiana and Texas. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, he was a senior vice president of en-ergy banking at BBVA Compass for eight years.

Charlie Vaughters will serve as a vice president covering energy and petroleum companies in Pennsylva-nia, Ohio and western Texas. He has been with the firm for two years, most recently as a vice president on the Corporate Client Banking En-ergy team. Prior to joining J.P. Mor-

gan, he worked on the Energy In-vestment Banking team at Barclays Capital.

Terri Benson will support the team as an underwriter and will help in structuring, underwriting, negotiating and executing oil and gas transactions. She joins the team from Société Générale, where she spent seven years specializing in underwriting upstream oil and gas debt and derivative transactions in the United States and Canada.

Son Hoang joins as a credit analyst supporting the team in business de-velopment, client management and credit analysis. He joins the firm from Pricewaterhouse Coopers Energy Ad-visory team where he was responsible for the development of solutions to optimize the finances of oil and gas companies.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., is a lead-ing global financial services firm with assets of $2.3 trillion and op-erations in more than 60 countries.


New Fluorescence Technology to Pinpoint Oil Leaks at Sea

Leading technology design and de-velopment firm Cambridge Consul-tants unveiled the first stage of work that’s set to give a much-needed boost to offshore oil leak detection. It has built an oil spill detection technology platform that is capable of detecting the natural fluorescence of even tiny amounts of oil in or on water.

Cambridge Consultants has a long track record of delivering innova-tive fluorescence detection solutions for challenging applications such as clinical diagnostics equipment, fertil-ity monitors and pregnancy tests and authentication of valuable documents. Crude oil is naturally fluorescent, which led the company to build the oil spill detection technology platform.

“The environmental impact of oil and gas leaks has never been more visible to the public, with the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, yet the solutions currently available do not meet all the requirements in terms of performance and reliability,” said Dr. Frances Metcalfe, associate director of the oil and gas sector at Cambridge Consultants.

Currently, aircraft use long-range ra-dar and scanners to detect fluorescence, but they are expensive and difficult to operate. Many oil companies still pri-marily rely on unsophisticated visual reports that are not consistently accu-rate. Many leaks are not detected until a slick comes to the surface and is visible to the human eye. The new technology aims to provide a compact, robust sys-tem that can be permanently installed for example along subsea pipelines.

“To be effective and trusted, any detection system must detect spills early enough but be immune to false alarms. Otherwise it will not be used,” Metcalfe said. “Our work so far shows that any reliable oil spill detection sys-tem will need to use more than one sensing method, and the best combi-nation will depend largely on where and how it is going to be used. An oil spill ‘alarm’ system of sensors distrib-uted across the seabed, or a series of oil platforms, is going to need a differ-ent design solution from a system for scanning a harbor or stretch of coast-line from a distance to track oil spills that might be heading for the shore.”

The new oil spill detection technol-ogy platform is the latest in a series of high-performance sensor develop-ments Cambridge Consultants has un-dertaken for the oil and gas industry.

“Developing new technologies to tackle difficult but high-value issues for this industry is a growing area of activ-ity for us and we are actively growing our team,” Metcalfe said.

Honeywell, Petronas Collaborate on Natural Gas Processing

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, will partner with Malaysia’s national oil and gas company, Petroliam Nasi-onal Berhad (Petronas), on natural gas processing technology.

The joint development program is focused on technology to overcome challenges faced by producers of liq-uefied natural gas (LNG), as they seek to monetize natural gas more eco-nomically by moving gas processing from onshore facilities to ships that will moor closer to offshore gas fields.

The program will center on ad-vanced carbon dioxide absorption technology to improve the reliability of equipment used to remove contam-inants from natural gas before it is liq-uefied, while also reducing the weight and footprint of the equipment on-board ships. Technical improvements

developed to better meet LNG speci-fications may also be deployed in the next generation of onshore and off-shore gas processing equipment.

“The joint program with Petronas is another example of how UOP is com-mitted to developing gas processing in-novations to meet the growing global demand for natural gas, especially in Southeast Asia,” said Rebecca Liebert, vice president and general manager for the gas processing and hydrogen unit of Honeywell’s UOP. “We look forward to a successful joint effort with Petronas, a recognized leader in natural gas in Asia.”

As part of the joint program, Petro-nas and UOP scientists will work on designs for next-generation equip-ment to overcome challenges posed by gas treatment onboard ships, and the two companies will design and build a land-based pilot plant to dem-onstrate the technology.

Natural gas is the world’s fastest-growing fossil fuel, with annual con-sumption expected to reach 160 tril-lion cubic feet (tcf) by 2035. Nearly 35 percent of the world’s demand growth for natural gas during that time will come from Asia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Producers are increasingly seeking new technology for liquefying natural gas, which is needed to transport natural gas by ship to regions that cannot be served by domestic production or pipelines. Natural gas extracted from wells often contains a variety of contaminants at lev-els that must be removed before the gas can be liquefied, stored or transported.

Honeywell’s UOP offers technology, equipment and materials to extract con-taminants such as carbon dioxide, hy-drogen sulfide, mercury and water prior to liquefaction, or remove trace sulfur compounds from the feed gas to create cleaner-burning natural gas. Honeywell’s UOP has developed solutions for more than 3,600 individual process units for gas processing in a broad range of ap-plications, including new applications such as Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels that recover oil and natural gas from offshore wells.

Honeywell’s UOP, headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., has increased business ac-tivities in Southeast Asia during the past five years. In June 2008, it established a gas processing design center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which designs and delivers fabricated skid-mounted gas pro-cessing plants. In May 2012, it opened a manufacturing and operations center in Penang, Malaysia, to produce natural gas purification membrane elements.


Cambridge Consultants has developed an oil spill detection technology platform capable of detecting the natural fluorescence of small amounts of oil in or on water.

North American Pipeline Project Roundup

Listings Contributed by

The following oil and gas pipeline projects have been an-nounced. Projects are in order of most recent approximate starting date. All projects are for 2012 unless noted.

T.G. Mercer Consulting Services Inc. was awarded a contract by Oneok to offload and rack 550 miles of 16-in. pipe in Lincoln County, Okla., and Grayson and Houston counties, Texas. Headquarters is Willow Park, Texas. The superintendents are Bruce Munro and Luke Park. Approximate start date: Nov. 5.

Foltz Welding, Ltd. (dba Continental Pipeline) was awarded a contract by Marathon for 24-in. anomaly digs in various counties near Lexington-Fayette County, Ky. Headquarters is Patoka, Ill. The superintendent is Rich Torrence. Approximate start date: Oct. 30.

Henkels & McCoy Inc. was awarded contracts by NiSource for the following: 1) 12 recoat digs on 18-, 20- and 24-in. pipelines in Louisa, Henrico, Prince George, Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Chesterfield and Goochland counties, Va. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Bill Adams; and 2) install 1,800 ft of 6-in. pipeline in Jackson County, W.Va. Headquarters is Ripley, W.Va. The superintendent is Chad Simmons. Approximate start dates: 1) Oct. 23 and 2) Oct. 29.

Dun Transportation & Stringing Inc. was awarded a contract by Enbridge/Evraz to offload and stockpile approximately 600 miles of 36-in. pipe. Project starts in Schuyler County, Ill., and ends in Oklahoma. Headquarters is the pipe yard. The superintendent is Greg Norman. Approximate start date: Oct. 25.

Indianhead Pipeline Services LLC was awarded a contract by Minnesota Ltd. LLC to provide sandbags on approximately 80 miles of 12-in. pipeline in Williams, Mountrail and Burke counties, N.D. Headquarters is Tioga, N.D. The superintendent is Randy Rubenzer. Approximate start date: Oct. 25.

InterCon Construction Co. Inc. was awarded a contract by Apex Pipeline Services Inc. to install 3,500 ft of 20-in. pipeline via directional drilling in Wetzel County, W.Va., and Monroe County, Ohio. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Joe Schmelzer. Approximate start date: Oct. 25.

Midwest Underground Inc. was awarded a contract by Kinder Morgan to install a 36-in. launcher with receiving risers in Cass and Oteo counties, Neb. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Mark Weber. Approximate start date: Oct. 25.

Apex Pipeline Services Inc. was awarded contracts by Eureka Hunter for the following: 1) install 5 miles of 16-in. steel pipeline in Tyler and Pleasants counties, W.Va.

Headquarters is Twin Hickories, W.Va. The superintendent is Cecil Hill; and 2) install 3,500 ft of 20-in. pipeline via directional drilling in Wetzel County, W.Va., and Monroe County, Ohio. Headquarters is Twin Hickories, W.Va. The superintendent is Bob Keaton. Approximate start dates: 1) Oct. 22 and 2) Oct. 24.

Appalachian Pipeline Contractors LLP was awarded a contract by Piedmont Natural Gas to install approximately 2,000 ft of 16-in. and 2,000 ft of 12-in. natural gas pipeline located in Mecklenburg County, N.C. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Anthony Campbell. Approximate start date: Oct. 24.

Midwest Underground Inc. was awarded a contract by Northern Natural to install an unknown amount of 3-in. pipeline in a meter station in Barron County, Wis. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Ken Leshein. Approximate start date: Oct. 23.

Minnesota Ltd. LLC was awarded a contract by Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co. to take up and relay 400 ft of 24-in. pipe-line in Defiance and Paulding counties, Ohio. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Larry Steenbergen. Approxi-mate start date: Oct. 22.

Price Gregory International Inc. was awarded a contract by El Paso – Kinder Morgan for road bores and meter station modifications in Cochise County, Ariz. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Mike Phillips. Approximate start date: unknown (announced Oct. 22).

Snelson Cos. Inc. was awarded a contract by TransCanada for multiple 12-in. anomaly dig-ups in Morrow County, Ore. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is John Kennedy. Approximate start date: Oct. 22.

ARB Inc. was awarded a contract by Southern California Gas Co. for the emergency replacement of a 10-in. high pressure steel gas pipeline of approximately one mile, tie-overs, hydrotesting and abandonment work in Fresno County, Calif. Headquarters is ARB Inc. The superintendent is Ed Ayala. Approximate start date: Oct. 16.

Midwest Underground Inc. was awarded a contract by Northern Natural to install 282 ft of 4-in. pipeline via directional drilling in Hamilton County, Iowa. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Ken Leslein. Approximate start date: Oct. 15.

Minnesota Ltd. LLC was awarded a contract by Alliance Pipeline Inc. to install 80 miles of 12-in. pipeline in Williams, Mountrail, Burke and Renville counties, N.D. Headquarters is Tioga, N.D. The superintendent is Michael Hyke. Approximate start date: Oct. 15.


Pe Ben USA Inc. was awarded a contract by Snelson Cos. Inc. to string pipe for section repairs on an existing 30-in. pipeline in Bowman County, N.D. Headquarters is Gascoyne, N.D. The superintendent is Ray Piper. Approximate start date: Oct. 15.

R.L. Coolsaet Construction Co. was awarded a contract by Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. to install approximately 5,500 ft of 4-in. pipeline in Livingston County, Mich. Headquarters is Howell, Mich. The superintendent is Joe Elliott. Approximate start date: Oct. 15.

Pe Ben USA Inc. was awarded a contract by Enterprise Products to offload and stockpile 50 miles of 36-in. pipe in Harris County, Texas. Headquarters is Houston. The superintendent is Robert Cooley. Approximate start date: Oct. 12.

Gabe’s Construction Co. Inc. was awarded a contract by Price Gregory International Inc. to install approximately 900 ft of 16-in. pipeline via directional drilling in Susquehanna County, Pa. Headquarters is on the jobsite. The superintendent is Steve Huibregtse. Approximate start date: Oct. 11.

Henkels & McCoy Inc. was awarded a contract by Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. Inc. for meter station fabrication in Monroe County, Pa. Headquarters is Long Pond, Pa. The superintendent is Gary Seidel. Approximate start date: Oct. 11.

Midwest Underground Inc. was awarded a contract by Kinder Morgan to install a 42-in. drip in Mills County, Iowa. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Mark Weber. Approximate start date: Oct. 11.

Snelson Cos. Inc. was awarded a contract by TransCanada to install 1,900 ft of 30-in. pipeline in Campbell County, Wyo. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Trevor Thayer. Approximate start date: Oct. 11.

Snelson Cos. Inc. was awarded a contract by TransCanada for an anomaly dig on a 42-in. pipeline in Kootenai County, Idaho, and an anomaly dig on a 42-in. pipeline in Spokane County, Wash. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Rick Melroy. Approximate start date: Oct. 9.

Apex Pipeline Services Inc. was awarded a contract by Eureka Hunter for the fabrication of 6- to 30-in. slug catchers in Putnam County, W.Va. Headquarters is Nitro, W.Va. The superintendent is Kelly Moss. Approximate start date: Oct. 8.

Apex Pipeline Services Inc. was awarded a contract by Triad Hunter to install 800 ft of 10-in. pipeline and 900 ft of 6-in. pipeline in Tyler County, W.Va. Headquarters is Twin Hickory, W.Va. The superintendent is Cody Vickers. Approximate start date: Oct. 8.

InterCon Construction Inc. was awarded a contract by Price Gregory International Inc. to install undetermined lengths of 16- and 20-in. pipeline via directional drilling in Susquehanna County, Pa. Headquarters is Waunakee, Wis. The superintendent is Joe Schmelzer. Approximate start date: unknown (announced Oct. 8).

Latex Construction Co. was awarded a contract by Atlanta Gas Light to install 21 miles of 24-in. pipeline in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties, Georgia. Headquarters is Chamblee, Georgia. The superintendent is Bill Burt. Approximate start date: Oct. 8.

Minnesota Limited LLC was awarded a contract by Enterprise to install sleeves on 8-in. pipeline in various counties in Pennsylvania. Headquarters is Evansville, Ind. The superintendent is Greg Frazier. Approximate start date: Oct. 8.

Price Gregory International Inc. was awarded a contract by DTE Energy to install 9.5 miles of 20-in. pipeline in Broome County, N.Y. Headquarters is Hallstead, Pa. The superintendent is Allen Collier. Approximate start date: unknown (announced Oct. 8).

Rockford Corp. was awarded a contract by PG&E to take up and relay 2,600 ft of 30-in. pipeline and 1,350 ft of 12-in. pipeline in Fresno County, Calif. Headquarters is Kerman, Calif. The superintendent is Kevin Newcomb. Approximate start date: Oct. 8.

Terra Restoration Services LLC was awarded a contract by Price Gregory International Inc. for seeding and restoration on 11 miles of 8- and 16-in. pipeline in Marshall County, W.Va. Headquarters is Moundsville, W.Va. The superintendent is Shawn Sammons. Approximate start date: Oct. 8.

BigInch Fabricators and Construction Inc. was awarded a contract by NiSource/Columbia Gulf to install a launcher, receiver and valve setting on a 24-in. pipeline in Wayne County, W.Va. Headquarters is Montezuma, Ind. The superintendent is Mike Utley. Approximate start date: Oct. 4.

Henkels & McCoy Inc. was awarded a contract by Columbia Gas to install three insulators on 8-, 20- and 26-in. pipelines in Baltimore and Howard counties, Md., and Hunterdon County, N.J. Headquarters is unknown. The superintendent is Chad Simmons. Approximate start date: Oct. 4.

Rodenberg Diversified LLC was awarded a contract by Williams Midstream to install 5,966 ft of 16- and 10-in. pipeline and related work in Susquehanna County, Pa. Headquarters is Montrose, Pa. The superintendent is Kevin Heberry. Approximate start date: Oct. 4.

WANT TO See yOUR PROjeCT HeRe?

Send submissions to Associate Editor Brad Kramer at [email protected] with the subject heading “Project Roundup.”


International Pipe Line & Offshore Contractors Association

NewsletterIPLOCA Health & Safety Award Sponsored by Chevron

The award was presented by Adam Wyn-ne Hughes, chairman of the IPLOCA HSE Commit-tee, to Wilbros representatives Brad MacLean, senior vice president of enterprise sup-port, and Jerrit Coward, presi-dent of the oil and gas segment, for their “Investing in Safety: The Willbros Safety Talisman Program.”

A brief presentation about the winning entry was given by MacLean.

Runners-up were Max Streicher for the Pocket Alarm and CCC for its “Innovation in Health and Safety Awareness and Communication” program.

IPLOCA Environmental Award

Sponsored by ShellThe award was presented by Loek Vreenegoor

of Shell to Rashid Shuhaiber, executive director of CCC’s Pipelines Business Unit, for the company’s “Creativity in Waste Management” program. Elie Sawwan, HSE manager, project support, CCC, then gave a short presentation about the winning entry.

Next year’s IPLOCA Con-vention will be held in Wash-ington, D.C., Sept. 23-27, 2013. For more i n f o r m a t i o n about the event and the asso-ciation in gen-eral, visit www.iploca.com.

As noted by outgoing presi-dent of the association, Osman Birgili, during his presentation of “The Year in Review” in Istanbul, IPLOCA has had a busy and pro-ductive 12 months. An increased focus on health and safety, and in particular a new focus on the prevention of road traffic acci-dents (RTAs), has been center stage. This was a topic also ref-erenced by many of the speak-ers during the convention.

RTAs account for a high per-centage of the injuries and fatal-ities in the industry and a work-shop was held in Geneva in June 2012 on this specific topic to bring experts together and try to identify ways to combat the problem more effectively.

In September, the association collaborated with the Construc-tion Sector Council of Canada (CSC) to produce a safety DVD entitled the “IPLOCA Pipeline Construction Safety Instructors Tool,” designed to assist with the training of pipeline workers worldwide. This DVD is being made available to the member-ship at large.

IPLOCA’s involvement with research spearheaded by the Pipeline Research Council In-ternational (PRCI) continues, and the association remains committed to furthering pipe-line-specific research that will benefit all of its members, in-cluding ongoing development, via a wiki, of the publication “Onshore Pipelines: The Road to Success.”

A Plenary Session meeting was held at the Sofitel London Heathrow, Oct. 23-24, which in-cluded a tour of the Welding En-

gineering & Laser Processing Centre at Cranfield University, focusing on research activities on pipeline welding such as the effect of multi-pass welds on heat-affected zone toughness, hybrid laser-arc welding, ap-plication of rolling in modifying weld metal properties and resid-ual stress field, and application of laser in hyperbaric welding.

In the last 12 months IPLOCA gained both new Regular Mem-bers and new Associate Mem-bers bringing the total member-ship to 261 companies. In order to better support the growing membership on a global ba-sis, the membership approved some changes to the By-Laws during its Annual General Meet-ing such that each geographi-cal region, irrespective of the number of member companies, may now be represented by two directors; similarly a change from two to three directors was approved to represent the growing numbers of Associate Members.

Indeed the reach of the as-sociation continues to expand with regional meetings held in Enschede, Netherlands; Milan, Italy; and Bogota, Colombia during 2012, with excellent at-tendance and commitment at each. While the annual conven-tion brings members together from all over the world, the re-gional meetings are an opportu-nity for companies to meet their association colleagues in small-er groups, to invite new poten-tial members of the association to participate, and to discuss topics of particular relevance to their area.

IPLOCA Outgoing President Praises Productive Year

Health and Safety Make Great Strides in Pipeline Industry


IPLOCA’s Health and Safety Award went to Wilbros. HSE Committee chairman Adam Wynne Hughes (left) presented the award to winners Brad MacLean and Jerrit Coward.

The Environmental Award was given to CCC. Loek Vreenegoor (left) of Shell, which sponsored the honor, presented the award to Rashid Shuhaiber as IPLOCA’s Adam Wynne Hughes congratulated the winner.

Association Names New Board Members for 2012-2013

More than 680 delegates attended the International Pipe Line and Offshore Con-tractors Association (IPLOCA) Conven-tion — the 46th annual — held this year in Istanbul, Sept. 10-14.

During the convention, the association elected its board of directors for 2012 to 2013. Named to positions on the IPLOCA board of directors are the following:

Officers• President of IPLOCA and Director

for America North: Douglas Evans (Gulf Interstate Engineering)

• 1st Vice President and Director for Middle East & Africa: Najib Khoury (CCC)

• Treasurer and Director for Europe Central: Harald Dresp (Max Streicher)

• Immediate Past President: Osman Birgili (Tekfen Construction)

regiOnal DirectOrs• Director for Europe Central: Jan Koop

(Bohlen-Doyen)• Directors for Europe Eastern: Kaan

Dogan, (Attila Dogan Construction & Installation Company Inc.) and Iosif Panchak (Stroygazmontazh)

• Directors for Europe Mediterranean: Leonardo Gravina (Sicim) and Bruno Maerten (GEOCEAN)

• Directors for Europe North-West: Andy Ball (Land & Marine) and Adam Wynne Hughes (CRC-Evans)

• Director for America North: Scott Summers (ARB Inc.)

• Directors for Latin America: Jesus Garcia Pons (Arendal) and Raul Vilu-gron (Montec)

• Director for Middle East & Africa: Ibrahim Zakhem (Zakhem Interna-tional Construction)

• Directors for East & Far East: Andy Lukas (A.J. Lucas) and Sandip Sharma (Kalpataru)

DirectOrs fOr assOciate MeMbers• Greg Miller (Pipeline Inspection Co. Ltd.) • Michael Rae (Argus Ltd) • Pierluigi Zanin (Goriziane Group)

DirectOrs-at-large• Jerrit Coward (Willbros Group Inc.)• Marco Jannuzzi (Caterpillar)• Wilhelm Maats (Maats Pipeline

Equipment)• Karl Trauner (HABAU)• Jean-Claude Van de Wiele (Spiecapag)

On the evening of the Final Banquet May Shuhaiber was the lucky winner of a car, courtesy of Volvo Construction Equipment and Renault Trucks. Lottery funds of more than EUR 13,500 were raised for “Send me to school, Dad” (Baba Beni Okula Gönder) an initia-tive to support continuing education for girls in Turkey.

Guest speakers provided presentations at the Open General Meetings as follows:

Professor ilber Ortayli — Istanbul: His-tory and Population.

bruce luberski, vice president for BP’s Global Project Organization for Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Develop-ments — Shah Deniz Development.

suzanne Minter, energy analyst/ac-count executive for BENTEK Energy — The Impact of Shale Gas Worldwide.

andreas Kohler, managing director for ILF Consulting Engineers — Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline from Turkmenistan to China.

bill Hoff, director for the engineering group at Gulf Interstate Engineering Com-pany, and Edward J. Wiegele, president of professional services for Willbros Engi-neers (United States) LLC — Rebuilding the World’s Pipeline Infrastructure.

angus Paterson, managing director at Paterson & Cooke — Requirements for the Design and Commissioning of Long Distance Slurry Pipeline Systems.

Hisham Kawash, senior manager of sales, pipeline estimation and proposals at CCC — Case History: Constructing a Slurry Pipeline in Madagascar.

Daslav brkic, vice president of E&C business development at Saipem — Nord Stream Offshore Pipeline.

IPLOCA Celebrates 46th Annual Convention in Istanbul


2012-2013 iPlOca board of Directors - Front row from left): Najib Khoury, Doug Evans, Osman Birgili, Harald Dresp and Juan Arzuaga (IPLOCA Executive Secretary). Second row: Raul Vilugron and Greg Miller. Third row: Iosif Panchak, Karl Trauner, Kaan Dogan and Leonardo Gravina. Fourth row: Jésus Garcia Pons, Jan Koop, Bruno Maerten, Ibrahim Zakhem, Marco Jannuzzi, Jean-Claude Van de Wiele. Fifth row: Adam Wynne Hughes, Andy Ball, Pierluigi Zanin and Jerrit

Coward. Sixth row: Michael Rae, Sandip Sharma, Scott Summers and Wilhelm Maats. Pictured separately: Andy Lukas.


a chance pairing between a recent college graduate and an industry he had no un-derstanding of turned into

a 35-year career that has earned L.A. “Buster” Gray the admiration and ac-colades of his peers.

Gray started working in the oil and gas pipeline sector in 1978, when he signed on with United Gas Pipeline in Houston, after graduating from Mis-sissippi State University with a bache-lor’s in civil engineering. Today, North American Oil & Gas Pipelines honors him as the inaugural winner of the Business Achievement Award.

The award honors individuals who have had a lasting and meaningful impact within the oil and gas pipe-lines sector, displaying excellence in leadership, safety, best practices and

other criteria. Gray was nominated by a group including the NAOGP Editori-al Advisory Board and fellow industry veterans. His credentials earned him unanimous approval by the board. This is the first in what will be a yearly honor.

Gray is a licensed engineer in 34 states and licensed surveyor in Texas, a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and former president of the Pipeliners Association of Hous-ton. He has owned and managed his own engineering company and was part owner of Universal Ensco until its sale in 2008 (now called UniversalPeg-asus). He stayed on as a consultant for two years, and then in the spring of 2010 he retired and moved to Miami.

But then he got bored. “In December of 2011, Michels

contacted me about heading up a construction consortium to construct the Keystone Phase 4 project that the president denied the permits to,” Gray says of his role as project director at MPS Constructors LLC, working on what is now widely referred to as Key-stone XL. MPS Constructors is a joint venture between Michels Corp., Price-Gregory International and Sheehan Pipe Line Construction Co.

With the delay in the Keystone project, Gray decided to step down from MPS Constructors this summer and has been transitioning out of that role. His next adventure will be with a pipeline engineering services compa-ny that he and a former business part-ner, Wiley Hatcher, have purchased a majority interest, called Energy Management and Services Co. (EMS),

Honoring a Career Marked by Integrity and Passion

By Bradley Kramer L.A. “Buster” Gray

B u s i N E s s A c h i E V E M E N t AwA R d w i N N E R B u s i N E s s A c h i E V E M E N t AwA R d w i N N E R B u s i N E s s A c h i E V E M E N t AwA R d w i N N E R B u s i N E s s

based in Versailles, Ky., with offices in Houston, Charleston, W.Va., and Detroit. Gray will act as president of the com-pany with the goal of building its national reputation in the United States.

“The new company is relatively regionalized in Kentucky and the Northeast, and we want to make it more of a nation-al player in the industry,” Gray says. “It’s a services business, and our goal now is to be a full-service pipeline management company, offering engineering, surveying, land, inspection, environmental and GIS drafting, and grow the company to be able provide all these services across the country.”

With the notoriety Gray has built within the pipeline in-dustry, the prospect of expanding EMS seems well within reason.

Take it from Gerry Grothe, international sales manager at Pipeline Machinery International (PLM) for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He hadn’t met Gray until last year, but he knew him well by reputation.

“I used to call on all the pipeline contractors in the Unit-ed States,” he says, “and they always referred to Buster Gray as somebody they all respected, who was credible and was really involved in a lot of the big projects.”

When Grothe met Gray at a Caterpillar event last fall, he saw for himself the respect Gray received.

“It struck me that everything I ever heard about the guy was the truth,” Grothe says. “The people who were with him hung on every word and respected everything he said. It was clear the respect he got from those around him.”

Robert Westphal, senior strategic advisor at Michels, has worked with Gray since the late 1980s, starting with direc-tional drilling projects and then larger pipelines.

“We got connected, and I trusted him,” Westphal says. “It grew from there.”

That trust led Westphal to recommend Gray for the MPS Constructors position after his time at UniversalPegasus. (Michels is a managing partner of MPS.)

“He has always been very, very fair. Even when he was work-ing for the clients, pipeline companies like TransCanada, he didn’t always agree with the direction they wanted him to go,” Westphal says. “Buster was always impartial and fair, both to the contractor and the client. He would always be consider-ate and think things through, and he would usually come up with a solution that was satisfactory to both sides.”

Westphal commends Gray for his leadership in the in-dustry, noting his knowledge of regulatory requirements, his ability to handle right-of-way concerns and how he has treated property owners.

“Generally speaking, Buster has always been a really good, honest person when dealing with people,” he says. “He has always been highly respected throughout the industry.”

A Passion for PeopleThe oil and gas pipeline industry is often referred to as a re-

lationship-oriented business. Pipeliners are a close-knit group that forms close bonds. Gray fits right into the industry, as he has always considered himself a “people-oriented person.”

“I have tremendous passion for people who work in this industry,” he says. “When I say that, I mean it takes all kinds of people to make this industry what it is. You have to have the necessary expertise to make a project successful. It has always intrigued me the idea of managing or oversee-ing all these diverse people to bring a project to a common end. What I enjoy is the people and interfacing with them. I get a lot of gratification from that.”

In managing a major pipeline project, Gray says the clos-est parallel he can draw is a military one. He views the task akin to that of a general.

“A general has to coordinate all types of activities, from arranging tanks and guns to the fact that you also have to feed the soldiers,” he says. “Pipeline project management is as close to being a general as you can get without being shot at. It’s a tremendous logistical management exercise that I have found to be extremely challenging. And when I say it’s a challenge, I mean it’s a lot of fun.”

Despite ups and downs throughout a project’s construc-tion, during which Gray says you sometimes don’t always make the right decisions, but “when a project comes to-gether, you forget all bumps and bruises in getting there.”

Troubling TrendsAfter more than three decades in the pipeline industry,

Gray has seen many advances, such as the ever-growing use of technology, but he also has noted some challenges that could be detrimental.

From working on all sides of the pipeline business, Gray says there are two key aspects that are vital to a project’s success.

“Unequivocally, it’s cooperation and communication. That’s cooperation between the owner, management and en-gineering services, construction contractors and manufactur-ers of pipe, all the way down,” he says. “When there is trust and cooperation between entities, when each side recognizes problems, then they can work together to solve issues, instead of saying, ‘Well, that’s your problem.’ Well, if it’s my problem, it’s the whole project’s problem. When you don’t have coop-



eration, the project becomes a much bigger task than it needs to be.”

Cooperation is becoming a scarce commodity in the pipeline industry, as Gray says he sees a lack of relation-ships and trust among its stakehold-ers, including owners, service compa-nies, suppliers and contractors.

“It seems that supply chain (for-merly purchasing) departments and contracts that try to shift all risk and ultimately blame to another party is the prevalence in our industry today,”

he says. “From my experience, the best pipeline infrastructure in the world, which exists here in North America to-day, did not get built by supply chains and five-pound contracts nobody can interpret or implement. It got built by relationships and trust. In today’s world, the pipeline industry faces huge challenges from affected landown-ers, environmental and safety groups and other stakeholders in the coming years. We need our entire industry fo-

cused on our work and industry, and not fighting among ourselves.”

Another primary concern facing the pipeline industry, according to Gray, is “the experience gap between dinosaurs like me and new people coming into the business.” He says the industry has failed to mentor and train future gen-erations in the technical workforce in pipeline engineering, construction and operations. Gray worries that consoli-dation among pipeline owners, servic-es companies and contractors over the

past decade is having a negative effect on the industry.

“With consolidation pushing peo-ple out of our industry, as well as companies having no particular train-ing and mentoring programs, I am extremely concerned that we are leav-ing our industry to an inexperienced workforce,” he says. “If our industry cannot proficiently oversee and man-age our new pipeline projects and ex-isting pipeline assets to the expecta-

tions of the public, then we have no reason to complain that the federal government will do so by imposition of regulations.”

Gray also believes that consolida-tion is erasing competition within the industry.

“Competition is what drove this country to greatness,” he says. “In my opinion we are at the point of consoli-dation in certain aspects of our business that the spirit of competition is being thwarted by size and bureaucracy.”

Outside influences will also affect the industry, Gray says, as he notes issues such as eminent domain, orga-nized labor and the expectations of the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Ma-terials Safety Administration (PHMSA) are having major impact.

Contesting eminent domain has be-come a growing trend in the United States, not just in regards to the pipe-line industry. Gray sees access to the right of eminent domain as necessary


During the course of his 35 years in pipelines, Gray has been involved with a number of industry “firsts,” including the successful implementation of mechanized welding and ultrasonic inspection in both the United States and China.


GrAy CAreer HiGHLiGHtsThroughout his career, Buster Gray has been involved with a number of high-profile pipeline projects. Here is a short list of what he considers to be highlights within the last two decades.

1992-1993 1998-1999 2006Tuscarora Pipeline — Engineering Manager of the design of the 223-mile, 20-in. natural gas pipeline project to serve Reno, Nev., and several small northern California communities. The project was owned by TransCanada and Sierra Pacific Power Co. (now NV Energy).

Express Pipeline — Project Director of the 515-mile U.S. portion of the

780-mile, 24-in. crude oil project from Wild Horse, Mont., to Casper,

Wyo. The project was owned by TransCanada and Alberta Energy

Corp. (now part of Encana Corp.). From conception to in-service date, the pipeline was completed within a year because it purchased permits from the defunct Altamont Project.

Alliance Pipeline — Engineering and Construction Manager of the 900-mile U.S. portion of the Alliance 36-in. natural gas pipeline project across North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. The project was the first high-pressure (designed for 1,740 psi) pipeline to be built to move entrained natural gas liquids with the natural gas to market for processing out the liquids.

Exxon Sakhalin Island to China Pipeline (concept) — Project Director of the conceptual design, constructability assessment and cost estimate for a proposed 900-km (559 miles), 36-in. natural gas pipeline from Russia’s Sakhalin Island to China. The pipeline route traversed the remote area of the Khabarovsk Krai in Far Eastern Russia. The project was never constructed.

China West to East Gas Pipeline Project — Project Director for the conceptual design

and cost estimate (followed by supervision of construction) of approximately 4,000 km (2,500 miles) of 40-in. gas pipeline

and related facilities for PetroChina Co. Ltd. Gray was stationed in China at the

time and worked with a peak staff of approximately 35 Westerners. The project was the first large-diameter, cross-country

pipeline built in China.

Keystone Mainline (United States) — Engineering and Construction Manager

of the 1,280-mile, 30- and 36-in. crude oil pipeline U.S. portion TransCanada’s

crude oil pipeline project from the Canadian-North Dakota border to

Patoka, Ill., and the Cushing Extension from Steele City, Neb., to Cushing,

Okla. Combined, construction covered North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska,

Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Illinois.

1996 2000-2005 2008-2010

to acquire land to construct pipelines for the public need.

“These very basic rights defined by our forefathers are being questioned across the nation in various state juris-dictions,” he says. “They are so impor-tant for utilities, including power, gas, water and electric, but also highways, railroads and airports, to grow to meet the needs of our growing nation.”

Gray credits organized labor for building a majority of the United States’ large-diameter, cross-country pipeline infrastructure, but he be-lieves national labor agreements are hindering further progress.

“Organized labor has been an essen-tial element of pipeline construction by providing much needed skilled and un-skilled labor to a very cyclical pipeline construction market,” he says. “How-ever, the national labor agreements, particularly certain work rules, are an-tiquated and hinder union contractors from competing in many markets.”

Gray believes that union contrac-tors and labor organizations “need some new blood, open-mindedness and a blank sheet of paper” to start over with agreements that are good for the industry and the workers alike.

Furthermore, the pipeline indus-try must adapt to a new relationship with PHMSA, which has set forth new requirements for safety, design and quality control (QC) in response to re-cent pipeline failures.

“We are experiencing a much more active interface with PHMSA on major pipeline projects,” Gray says. “This more

active interface has uncovered a myriad of issues regarding pipeline owner qual-ity assurance, control and documenta-tion of pipeline construction.”

These issues are going to require the industry to employ better qualified QC personnel and institute clearly defined construction specifications with rigorous quality assurance programs, Gray says. Such programs will require much more detail and complete documentation of construction inspections and records.

“This ultimately is going to require better compensation to attract person-nel into the industry who can perform these tasks to more stringent require-ments and expectations,” he adds. “This is long overdue in our industry, where QC personnel have been com-pensated at extraordinarily low wages compared to other industries.”

While Gray believes these issues are a concern for the industry moving forward, these troubling trends are manageable by the “entrepreneurial spirit of the people in our industry.” In order to do so, he says that the in-dustry must have the “initiative and stewardship of the pipeline owners to facilitate the solutions.”

Connecting the Future

The North American oil and gas in-dustry continues to grow, and Gray sees a challenge and an opportunity to connect reserves from the Bakken, shale gas regions and Canadian oil sands to the existing pipeline transpor-tation and storage network, an infra-structure he describes as mature with much of it in excess of 50 years old.

“I believe the public and possibly industry veterans do not appreciate the complexity of this work,” Gray says. “All of a sudden, we have signifi-cant gas supplies near our major mar-kets in the Northeast. Pipelines that traditionally flowed into the North-east may need reversal, existing gas storage may no longer be strategically located, reserves indicate that power generation could convert from coal to gas, bottlenecks for the movement of crude oil must be eliminated, and new transportation capacity for crude oil from new supplies are needed. All of these will challenge our industry to meld in this explosion of supply.”

Assisting in this challenge will be the continued development of new technology, which Gray says has been the biggest change he’s witnessed dur-ing his career.

“Technology has influenced so many aspects of our industry from when I entered the business. When I went to college, Texas Instruments introduced the first scientific hand-held calculator that made the old en-gineer’s slide rule a relic in a matter of months,” Gray recalls. “Technology has influenced everything including development of high-yield strength line pipe and methods to weld it, high efficiency compressors and pumps, mechanized welding and ultrasonic NDE inspection, high definition in-line inspection tools, high resolution aerial photography, GPS survey, GIS management systems, CAD drafting software, and the list could go on and on. The wonderful part of technology is I sincerely believe we are only at the tip of the iceberg of what is yet to come for our industry.”

When talking to Gray, his passion for the pipeline is clear. He recalls an industry-made bumper sticker that sums up his beliefs — the sticker read, “Ain’t nothing finer than a pipeliner.”

“In the literal context of it, it’s an extremely true statement,” Gray says. “It means a lot to me. I have a passion for the people in this industry, and I believe that whole-heartedly.”

Bradley Kramer is associate editor of North American Oil & Gas Pipelines. Contact him by email at bkramer@ benjaminmedia.com.



Embarking on a new adventure, Buster Gray and a business partner have purchased Kentucky-based Energy Management and Services Co. with the plan to grow it from a regional to nationwide business.

Gray spent five years working on pipelines in China. Here, he stands with an associate at the aerial crossing of the Yellow River for the West to East Gas Pipeline near Zhongwei, China.


And while much is said about preventive maintenance of welding power sources — after all they are expensive equipment responsible for delivering the power to create a weld — the MIG gun is also a critical component of the welding process. In addition to delivering the cur-rent and welding wire to the weld puddle, the MIG gun is also respon-sible for ensuring proper shielding gas coverage to protect against con-taminants. Without the proper care, any one of these three factors could be compromised and negatively af-fect the integrity of the root, fill or

Preventive MIG gun maintenance is a critical part of achieving the quality and productivity needed on pipeline projects.

Maintaining a MIG Gun

Simple Tips for Getting the Best Welding PerformanceBy Andy Monk

Welding is a key part of any pipeline project,and just like pipeline design, material handling and transportation, it must be completed with efficiency and accuracy in mind. Any time spent reworking poor welds or repairing faulty welding equipment can lead to downtime that affects costs and, potentially, the pipeline contract.

cap pass on a pipeline project. Ignor-ing preventive maintenance can also shorten the life of the gun, adding to costs unnecessarily.

Below are some recommended maintenance tips for most brands of MIG guns. Remember to always fol-low the gun manufacturers’ recom-mended safety precautions, including disconnecting the gun from the feeder and allowing it to cool before per-forming any maintenance that could expose live electrical circuits.

Feeder Connection — A loose or dirty wire feeder connection often causes electrical resistance and heat to build up at the point of the connec-tion, leading to drops in voltage, an erratic arc and premature equipment failure. Manually check the connection on a weekly basis or when connecting the gun to the feeder to ensure that it is clean and fits tightly to the wire feeder. If the connection is loose and cannot be tightened according to the manufacturer’s specifications, it is best to replace the direct plug with one that fits securely. Clean a dirty direct plug as needed with electrical contact cleaner.


EXPLODED NECK AND TIPSThis exploded view of a neck and consumables system shows how the components fit together. The white strip at the base of the nozzle extends into the body of the nozzle and keeps it isolated electrically from the contact tip.

Another area of the feeder connec-tion that can fail are the O-rings, which are designed to provide an airtight seal through which the shielding gas en-ters the cable hose. These O-rings can become dry and crack over time, and they can also be cut or damaged when the gun is installed. Gas leaks caused by faulty O-rings can cause porosity, excessive spatter and create other de-fects that require rework and waste gas. They should be checked and coated with a silicone lubricant whenever the gun is removed from the feeder.

Cable — The cable is usually the only part of the MIG gun that requires full

gun replacement when it becomes damaged. For that reason, cable main-tenance is very important to avoiding unnecessary equipment costs. Gun cables should be visually inspected on a daily basis for cuts, kinks and other damage. Cuts in the cable could ex-pose the internal copper wiring and create a potential safety hazard.

The cable should also be routed from the feeder to the welding location as straight as possible. Severe bends in the cable can obstruct the gas flow and wire feeding, leading to porosity, an erratic arc and other weld deformities that take valuable time to remedy.

Liner — The liner is often both the most difficult part of the gun to inspect and maintain, and one of the most frequent sources of weld troubles. Fragments of the welding wire often chip off and ac-cumulate as it travels through the liner.

Over time, these accumulations can cause poor wire feeding, birdnesting (a tangle of wire in the drive rolls) and burnback. These problems can also oc-cur if the liner becomes kinked or if the cable is bent at too much of an angle.

Removing the liner for a full inspec-tion and cleaning it is time consum-ing and unnecessary if there aren’t any existing problems. Instead, to maintain an unclogged liner, use com-pressed air to clear out any potential blockages during wire changeovers or when removing the wire from the gun. Spending an extra few minutes clearing out any debris from the liner can save considerably more time than

troubleshooting the weld defects and equipment problems that can result from blockages.

Handle and trigger — The handle and trigger generally require very little maintenance beyond visual inspection. Check that there are no missing screws or damage to the handle and test the trigger to make sure it is not sticking or otherwise malfunctioning. These in-spections take only seconds and should be done every time the gun is used.

A damaged handle runs the risk of causing electrical shock if there is any exposed copper from the weld cable. A dirty, damaged or simply worn out trigger can cause a number of weld problems and should be replaced with a new trigger.

Neck — The neck carries the electrical current from the welding cable to the

consumables. Loose connections at ei-ther end of it can cause poor electrical conductivity, which can lead to weld defects and further equipment failures due to the heat generated by electrical resistance. Check to ensure tight neck connections on a daily basis.

MIG gun necks also feature external insulators that protect the electrically live components from being exposed. Exposed electrical components near the handle can create a safety risk, and exposed components near the consumables could arc to the work piece and damage both the gun and the work piece. The insulators should be checked on at least a weekly basis and replaced as needed.

Consumables — Because of their exposure to heat, spatter and general abuse, consumables require frequent replacement. That doesn’t mean, however, that implementing simple consumable maintenance can’t save time and money.

In addition to providing gas flow to the weld pool, the gas diffuser connects to the neck and carries the electrical current to the contact tip. Loose con-nections between the diffuser and the neck or the diffuser and the contact tip can cause gas leaks or weld quality and equipment problems related to poor conductivity and built up electrical re-sistance. These should be checked dur-ing nozzle changes and tightened to the manufacturer’s specifications using the recommended tools.

Many diffusers also use O-rings to seal in the shielding gas, and like their counterparts at the back end of the gun, should be checked for cracks, cuts or other damage and replaced as neces-sary whenever the nozzle is removed.

The nozzle’s main role is to focus the shielding gas around the weld pool. Spatter can build up inside the nozzle and obstruct the gas flow, re-sulting in porosity, excessive spatter and other problems related to inad-equate shielding gas coverage. The nozzle and nozzle insulator can also become damaged from cleaning out the built-up spatter.

Check and clean the nozzle fre-quently. A pair of welding pliers is the most common tool for cleaning noz-zles, but there are other specialized tools designed specifically for reaming out spatter from the nozzles.

The nozzle insulator keeps the cop-per or brass nozzle body separate from the electrically live consumable


POWER PINThe power pin delivers the electrical current and the shielding gas to the gun. A loose connection or damaged O-rings can interrupt this process.

components, so a damaged insulator could cause the nozzle to arc to the workpiece. A visual inspection of the nozzle insulator is usually sufficient to determine proper condition, and damaged insulators require replacing the entire nozzle.

The contact tip is the final piece of the consumables set, and the last point of contact between the welding equipment and the welding wire. As the wire passes through the contact tip, it can erode the inside of the tip bore, leading to interruptions in the electrical current and poor arc con-trol. The tip can also become covered with spatter and cause inadequate gas coverage.

Welding operators often wait to change the contact tip until a weld problem develops, however, the time it takes to correct a weld problem can be considerably greater than the time it takes to visually inspect and replace the contact tip on a regular basis as a standard maintenance procedure.

So while downtime for diagnosing and correcting minor problems, such as loose connections, may seem like it deters from the productivity needed

on pipeline projects, in the long run, it can avert more serious equipment failures and weld defects.

Andy Monk is a product manager at Bernard, a welding technology manu-facturer based in Beecher, Ill.


SPATTER NOZZLEBuilt up spatter inside the nozzle, as shown here, can cause poor shielding gas flow. Clean spatter from the inside of the nozzle using a pair of welding pliers or a dedicated reaming device.


Training for inTegriTyNACE Promotes Importance of Corrosion Control to Pipeline Integrity

By Alysa Reich

Corrosion is a lead-ing cause of pipeline failures. If you, or your direct reports,

or even their direct reports, are involved in any work related to a pipeline, you are all respon-sible for any incidents that occur because of inadequate corrosion control systems and poor integrity management.

In fact, according to U.S. legislation that went into ef-

fect after several high-profile pipeline failures, you can be held personally liable for those incidents — even criminally. It is your responsibility to ensure that the pipelines you man-age or maintain are compliant with regulations, codes and standards.

The best way to ensure pipe-line safety is through a funda-mental understanding of cor-rosion control practices, such

as cathodic protection (CP), to protect the pipeline; proper training and certi-fication to ensure accurate implemen-tation of those practices; and a thor-ough understanding of regulations.

“It is vitally important that opera-tors assess their system to determine if there are unique conditions that may require special attention beyond that described in the regulations,” says Kevin Garrity, NACE president.

How to Mitigate Corrosion

The principle method for mitigating corrosion on underground pipelines is the use of coatings in conjunction with CP. Coatings form a continuous barrier of an electrically insulating material over the pipeline surface.

By isolating the pipeline from con-tact with the surrounding earth, or electrolyte, corrosion is minimized. CP is a technique used to reduce the cor-rosion rate of the pipeline by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. The simplest method to apply CP is by connecting the pipeline to a more “sacrificial” metal that will act as the anode of the electrochemical cell. The sacrificial metal then corrodes instead of the protected metal. When properly applied, CP can attain a very high level of effective corrosion control.

Corrosion control requires diligent monitoring and continuous opera-tion. For coatings and CP to be most effective, a corrosion control program must be implemented properly from the outset.

Regulators and companies understand this and are learning that the best de-fense against pipeline failures is a strong offense against corrosion. Even during new construction, it is important to have a plan to provide corrosion protec-tion as pipelines are being installed to avoid premature corrosion damage from Stray Direct and Alternating Current In-terference according to Garrity. NACE offers an in-depth course on recognizing and mitigating interference effects.

operator Qualification rule

The Operator Qualification (OQ) Rule (a U.S. Department of Transpor-tation regulation) requires anyone

working on a pipeline be qualified to do so. Pipeline technicians must be operator qualified to do any opera-tion and maintenance tasks. The OQ Rule provides the minimum, barest qualification for the pipeline work-force; many companies have chosen to have scores of employees trained via more in-depth and rigorous train-ing programs, such as several offered by NACE International and other or-ganizations. The more substantive training helps employees understand not just tasks, but also their role in ensuring pipeline safety, starting with data integrity.

According to John Fitzgerald, NACE past president and Materials Perfor-mance technical editor, one result of the OQ Rule is that NACE-certified personnel may find themselves be-coming inspectors of others’ work. For example, suppose your company hires short-term help to assist in ac-quiring pipe-to-soil potentials or em-ploys non-corrosion personnel to as-sist with taking readings. Very seldom are these temporary personnel quali-fied under the OQ Rule to perform their duties unsupervised. As an in-


NACE International members install a magnesium anode junction box in a pipeline trench during construction of the cathodic protection training field at NACE Headquarters. Photo by Joanne Penczak, NACE International.

A trenching machine is used to prepare for the installation of a reconditioned underground pipeline. CP are widely used to protect underground pipe from corrosion. Photo courtesy of Brad Lewis, KMEP.

spector you are responsible for the ac-curacy of the data being obtained, so your work with temporary personnel is important. In these cases, you also become a trainer, adding to the need for your knowledge to be greater than that required to pass the tests of many OQ programs.

Data integrity is Key“It is crucial to remember that the

data you bring back to the office are the data your company uses in its safety program, and if your company is part of a regulated industry, then that data must also be used in reports to the local utilities commission and other pertinent entities,” Fitzgerald says. “If the data for a certain pipeline or other regulated structure are not accurate, the reported information is not accurate, and that can lead to vio-lations and fines.”

Up-to-date educationCorrosion is the reason for many

of the pipeline regulations we must follow. Corrosion control is a very important aspect of pipelining, and coatings and CP training are vital to meeting regulatory requirements. The most important thing a company can do to be compliant with or exceed the OQ Rule and demonstrate attention to pipeline safety, is to ensure a cor-porate culture that has all employees focused on pipeline safety. Meaning-ful training is a key aspect to achieve that goal.

NACE has extensive pipeline indus-try programs to meet the challenges ahead as global pipeline infrastruc-ture continues to age and demands constant monitoring and mainte-nance; and also as new infrastructure is developed with long-term sustain-ability as a consideration. Aging and new infrastructure, combined with the changing regulatory atmosphere, means it is imperative for pipeline op-erators to be aware of how corrosion and other defects impact the integrity of a pipeline.

Significant cost savings can be real-ized by implementing available cor-rosion prevention and mitigation technologies as a component of an existing integrity management plan. The NACE Internal Corrosion and Ca-thodic Protection Programs offer the pipeline industry the technical knowl-edge and skills to ensure safe opera-tion of pipelines without failures that may jeopardize public safety, result in

product loss or cause property and en-vironmental damage.

In addition to those programs, NACE is launching three new courses: Pipeline Corrosion Assessment Field Techniques, Direct Assessment and In-Line Inspection. These courses are part of the Pipeline Corrosion Integ-rity Management Program (PCIM).

NACE’s specific Cathodic Protection Training and Certification Program ensures in-depth understanding of CP that is critical to extending the oper-ating life and integrity of assets. The comprehensive program is designed to give students a route toward con-tinued career-long professional devel-opment and comprises seven courses, including four levels of CP certifica-tion and specialized courses in CP In-terference and Coatings in Conjunc-tion with Cathodic Protection, both of which are essential factors for the successful application and execution of cathodic protection.

NACE coatings education programs provide a basic understanding of pro-tective coatings and how they oper-ate, and the NACE Coating Inspector Program (CIP) has set a single, global standard for inspections in the pro-

tective coatings industry since 1983 and is the world’s most recognized and specified coating inspector cer-tification program. The CIP initiates today’s coatings professionals into the world of corrosion control by protec-tive coatings, inspection of those coat-ings, and coatings project awareness, resulting in billions of dollars saved by reducing costly mistakes.

Meeting the needs of the Pipeline industry

NACE represents an industry that is constantly improving the technol-ogy for corrosion control practices, and the organization is continually improving the education and qualifi-cations of corrosion control practitio-ners. The members of NACE are dedi-cated to providing the best resources for the safest, most cost-effective means of pipeline operation with a focus on advancing design practices and life prediction and performance assessment methods through ongo-ing research, development and imple-mentation.

Alysa Reich is senior manager of pub-lic relations for NACE International.


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It’s no secret that the natural gas market is booming in the United States. Shale gas development has led to historically low prices, while

demand has continued to grow. Judging by the pipeline projects that have been proposed and those that are now under construction, producers and pipeline operators are looking to expand infra-structure to transport gas from these new reserves to market through a com-bination of building new and adapting existing systems for the task.

Because of lower natural gas prices and comparatively high prices for natural gas liquids, some producers are increasingly targeting liquids-rich portions of shale formations, accord-ing to data collected by the U.S. Ener-gy Information Administration (EIA).

While production of natural gas lev-eled off in the first half of 2012, the EIA reports that volumes remain at historically high levels. Furthermore, demand has been on the upswing compared to previous years.

Electricity generation from coal and natural gas increased this summer due to high temperatures and consumers run-ning their air conditioners more than av-erage, according to the EIA. Additionally, the agency’s forecast for winter heating fuel consumption appears higher than last year as temperatures are expected to be closer to normal compared to last year’s warmer than average temperatures.

With last month’s announcement, the Alaskan state government is also looking to capitalize on its natural gas reserves in the North Slope by finding new markets, as the need for a pipe-line to the lower 48 states seems to have dried up.

What follows is an overview of many of the natural gas pipeline proj-ects currently under way or in the permitting process. Projects are listed alphabetically.

Alaska LNG ProjectLocation: AlaskaProduct: Liquefied natural gas (LNG)Stakeholder(s): Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., BP PLC and TransCanada Corp.Overview: In October, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell announced that a team of energy companies may invest up to

$65 billion for an 800-mile natural gas pipeline from the North Slope region to export to markets in the Pacific Rim. The proposed pipeline would include five off-take points to serve Alaskan energy needs before surpluses could be exported to Northeast Asia.Progress: just proposedStart date: TBDEnd date: TBD

Appalachian Gateway ProjectLocation: West Virginia, PennsylvaniaProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Dominion Transmission Overview: This $600 million project in-cludes the installation of 110 miles of new pipeline and facilities in West Vir-ginia and Pennsylvania in an effort to deliver Appalachian natural gas produc-tion to markets in the eastern United States. The pipeline will range in diame-ters of 20, 24 and 30 in. The project also includes the construction of four new gas compressor stations, adding about 17,000 hp. Dominion will ultimately deliver this natural gas to an intercon-nect with Texas Eastern Transmission at Oakford in Delmont, Pa. Total firm transportation delivery for the Appala-chian Gateway Project will be 484,260 dekatherms of natural gas per day.Progress: The project went into ser-vice Sept. 4. Start date: Approved June 2011End date: September 2012

Front Range Pipeline Location: Colorado, TexasProduct: Natural gas liquids (NGL)Stakeholder(s): Enterprise Products Partners LP, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and DCP Midstream LLCOverview: The Front Range Pipeline will originate in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Weld County, Colo., and ex-tend approximately 435 miles to Skel-lytown, Texas. The pipeline will have connections to the Mid-America Pipe-line system and the Texas Express Pipe-line and feature an initial capacity of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), which can be readily expanded to approxi-mately 230,000 bpd. Enterprise will construct and operate the pipeline. Progress: Announced April 2012Start date: UnknownEnd date: Fourth quarter 2013

MPP ProjectLocation: PennsylvaniaProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan)Overview: The MPP Project will provide approximately 240,000 dekatherms per day of incremental firm transporta-tion capacity from the developing pro-duction region along its existing 300 Line system to serve established mar-kets, including markets in the North-east United States. The project facilities include the installation of approxi-mately 7.9 miles of 30-in. diameter, high-quality steel pipe looping (loop-ing is additional pipeline installed ad-jacent or near an existing pipeline and connecting to the existing pipeline) on Tennessee’s 300 Line in Potter County, Pa. Also planned are modifications and upgrades at four existing compressor stations on Tennessee’s 300 Line sys-tem in Mercer, Venango, McKean and Potter counties in Pennsylvania. Progress: Approved by FERC in August 2012.Start date: Summer 2013End date: November 2013

New Jersey-New York Pipeline ExpansionLocation: New Jersey and New YorkProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Spectra EnergyOverview: The New Jersey-New York project is an expansion of Spectra’s ex-isting Texas Eastern Transmission and Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline systems to deliver new, critically needed natural gas supplies to the New Jersey and New York areas, including Manhat-tan. The expansion includes the instal-lation of approximately 16 miles of new pipeline and 5 miles of replacement pipeline for a capacity of 800 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). Progress: Under constructionStart date: Summer 2012End date: November 2013

Northeast Upgrade ProjectLocation: Pennsylvania, New JerseyProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan) Overview: The project involves ex-panding Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s


Shale Development Continues to Drive Gas Pipelines By Bradley Kramer

U.S. Natural gas Projects

(TGP) system to allow an additional 636,000 dekatherms per day of natu-ral gas to be transported from Penn-sylvania to growing markets in the Northeast. TGP proposes to upgrade its existing 24-in. diameter 300 Line by constructing five, 30-in. diameter pipeline loops and modifying four existing compression stations to ac-commodate the increased capacity. A pipeline loop is a segment of pipeline installed adjacent to an existing pipe-line and connected to the existing pipeline at both ends. These five loops will close out the remaining unlooped segments of Tennessee’s existing 300 Line east of Bradford County, Pa., into New Jersey. The Northeast Upgrade Project, along with the company’s 300 Line Project (see additional entry), will add about 1 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day of new firm transportation ca-pacity that will provide safe and reli-able transportation of clean-burning, domestic natural gas supplies to key Northeast markets. The project is ex-pected to cost approximately $400 million with a majority of the capital spending occurring in 2013.Progress: Received approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Com-mission in May 2012.Start date: Fall 2012End date: November 2013

Northeast Supply Diversification ProjectLocation: Pennsylvania and New YorkProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan)Overview: The Northeast Supply Di-versification (NSD) Project will to provide up to 250,000 dekatherms per day of incremental firm transpor-tation capacity from the developing Marcellus shale region along the 300 Line system to serve existing markets in New England and the Niagara Falls area of New York. Tennessee will pro-vide incremental firm transportation service through a combination of pipeline looping, compressor station modifications and the use of exist-ing and off-system capacity. The NSD Project involves the installation of ap-proximately 7 miles of 30-in. diameter pipeline looping located in Bradford and Tioga counties, Pa., west of Ten-nessee’s Station 317, compressor sta-tion and other facility modifications located in Niagara and Erie counties, N.Y., along its jointly owned Niagara Spur lateral, and the use of existing and third party pipeline capacity.

Progress: The project is under con-struction. The company filed a cer-tificate application in November 2010 for FERC approval. Start date: First half of 2012End date: November 2012

Sand Hills PipelineLocation: TexasProduct: NGLStakeholder(s): DCP MidstreamOverview: The Sand Hills Pipeline will provide critical new capacity for the transportation of NGLs from the

Permian Basin and Eagle Ford shale. The pipeline will start in West Texas, run through South Texas and end at Mont Belvieu, Texas, spanning 720 miles and using 20-in. pipe. Initial capacity will be 200,000 bpd, which DCP Midstream expects to grow to 350,000 bpd with the addition of eco-nomic pumping stations. The com-pany will provide interconnects with strategically located NGL infrastruc-ture in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. Through DCP Midstream’s strategic alliance with West Texas


LPG pipeline, operated by Chevron, the company has gathering access to most plants in the Permian Basin. At the Gulf Coast, the Sand Hills Pipeline has been routed to provide intercon-nectivity with multiple planned and existing fractionation and storage fa-cilities in and around Mont Belvieu.Progress: The first phase of the pipeline opened in October 2012, providing ser-vice for Eagle Ford NGLs in South Texas.Start date: April 2012End date: Second quarter 2013

Sasabe Lateral Project Location: ArizonaProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Kinder MorganOverview: Growth in market centers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico bor-der is driving increased demand for clean, environmentally friendly nat-ural gas for power generation, indus-trial production and other uses. The Sasabe Lateral project in southeast-ern Arizona, which would include constructing a new 36-in. diameter lateral pipeline and facilities to pro-vide an initial 160 MMcf/d of firm capacity from a point of intercon-nection with Kinder Morgan’s exist-ing pipeline system west of Tucson, Ariz. The proposed project would extend approximately 60 miles in a southwesterly direction to a point at the U.S.-Mexico border, near Sasabe, Ariz., where it would interconnect with a new pipeline in Mexico at the direction of the Mexico Comision Federal de Electricidad. Several possi-ble routes are being evaluated, and a final pipeline route is subject to regu-latory approvals. One potential route for the Sasabe Lateral would cross portions of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge along Highway 286, which would require approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, manager of the refuge.Progress: Kinder Morgan initiated the pre-filing process for FERC approval in April 2012. Start date: 2014End date: September 2014

Southern Hills PipelineLocation: TexasProduct: NGLStakeholder(s): DCP MidstreamOverview: DCP Midstream is creating new natural gas liquids transporta-tion capacity from the Midcontinent to the premium Texas Gulf Coast markets. The company announced in June 2011 an agreement to ac-

quire the Seaway Products Pipeline Co. from ConocoPhillips, rename it Southern Hills Pipeline and convert it from refined products service to an interstate NGL pipeline. DCP Mid-stream will add extensions to Mont Belvieu, Texas, along with various receipt points in the Midcontinent region and associated gathering in-frastructure. The pipeline will run more than 900 miles and have a tar-get capacity of more than 150,000 bpd of NGLs.Progress: The acquisition and the start of the conversion took place at the end of 2011. The first phase of the pipeline opened in October 2012, pro-viding service for Eagle Ford NGLs in South Texas.Start date: 2011End date: Mid-2013

Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market Expansion Program 2012Location: PennsylvaniaProduct: Natural gasStakeholder(s): Spectra EnergyOverview: Spectra Energy, along with Range Resources and Chesapeake Utilities, have executed agreements to deliver up to 200 MMcf/d of Mar-cellus natural gas supply along the Texas Eastern Transmission system to the Northeast United States, using existing or adjacent pipeline ease-ments throughout the project. The Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market (TEAM) project includes the addi-tion of approximately 1.8 miles of 36-in. diameter natural gas in Greene County, Pa., west of the Mononga-hela River, as well as the addition of approximately 3.2 miles of 36-in. pipeline in Fayette County, Pa., east of the Monongahela River. The project also calls for the replacement of an abandoned 24-in. diameter pipeline with a new 36-in. natural gas pipelines for approximately 7.3 miles eastward toward the Heidlers-burg Compressor Station in Franklin County, approximately 4 miles east-ward toward the Marietta Compres-sor Station in Adams County, Pa., and approximately 1 mile in Fulton and Franklin counties. Furthermore, the project also includes the addition of 26,000 hp at the existing Bedford Compressor Station, along with other facilities upgrades.Progress: Under constructionStart date: Approved by FERC in Jan-uary 2012End date: November 2012

Texas Express Pipeline Location: TexasProduct: NGLStakeholder(s): Enterprise Products Partners, Enbridge Energy Partners and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.Overview: The Texas Express Pipeline (TEP) will transport NGLs that originate from Skellytown, Texas, and extend ap-proximately 580 miles to NGL fraction-ation and storage facilities in Mont Bel-vieu, Texas. The pipeline will provide additional takeaway capacity for pro-ducers in West and Central Texas, the Rocky Mountains, Southern Oklahoma and the Midcontinent and provide in-creased access to the Gulf Coast NGL market. Initial capacity on TEP will be approximately 280,000 bpd, which can be readily expanded to approximately 400,000 bpd. In addition, the joint ven-ture will include two new NGL gather-ing systems. The first will connect TEP to natural gas processing plants in the Anadarko/Granite Wash production area located in the Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma. The second NGL gathering system will connect the new pipeline to Central Texas, Barnett shale processing plants. Volumes from the Rockies, Permian Basin and Mid-continent regions will be delivered to the TEP system via Enterprise’s existing Mid-America Pipeline (MAPL) assets between the Conway hub and Enter-prise’s Hobbs NGL fractionation facility in Gaines County, Texas. Enterprise will construct and serve as the operator of the pipeline, while Enbridge will build and operate the new gathering systems. The pipeline and gathering systems are expected to begin service in the second quarter of 2013, subject to regulatory approvals.Progress: Awaiting regulatory approvalStart date: UnknownEnd date: Second quarter 2013

This is not a comprehensive list of the natural gas pipeline projects in the Unit-ed States. For updates regarding ongoing projects, refer to the Project Roundup on page 18 and published every issue.

North American Oil & Gas Pipelines pro-vides quarterly updates of oil and gas pipeline projects in the United States and Canada. Previous reports were published this year in February, May and August. The next update will be February 2013, covering Canadian oil pipeline projects.

Bradley Kramer is associate editor of North American Oil & Gas Pipelines. Contact him at [email protected].



Extending along much of the Appalachian Basin, the slippery sloped Marcellus shale sits on numerous valuable, untapped

natural gas reserves. Close in proximity to many major markets along the East Coast of the United States, it provides a treacherous, yet profitable opportunity for underground utility contractors that specialize in pipe laying and are willing to stand up to the safety risks. Benton-Georgia, a leading underground utility contractor that has employed its services all across the East Coast for the past 90 years, was awarded a job last summer on this unique landscape near the north-eastern Pennsylvania town of Towanda. The goal was to install the necessary in-frastructure from the gas wells so that natural gas worth millions of dollars could be transported to the customer’s refining and cleaning system and then provided to the end user. Standing in Benton-Georgia’s way, however, were life-threatening terrain, specialized equipment needs and two major floods.

“The magnitude and importance of this job was huge due to the financial impact of the natural gas to our cus-tomer,” said John Lightner, fleet man-ager for Benton-Georgia. “I would estimate that there were more than 200 uncapped well heads ready to be connected to the main infrastructure lines. Every week that these remained uncapped, each well head cost our customer upwards of $500,000 to $1 million in profit.”

The first priority after winning the bid was getting equipment to safely handle the job. The Marcellus shale is an extremely uneven terrain, requir-ing the contractor to work on slippery 45-degree slopes for parts of the pipe-line work. Factory-ready excavators aren’t equipped for this type of chal-lenge. In addition, the job required the backfill to be rid of large rocks and other abrasive materials, so the excava-tors would have to be customized with the proper hydraulic systems to handle the attachments required for the job.

“Like most contractors today, we can’t afford to tie up capital on equip-ment in hopes of getting a job,” stated Lightner. “In our market, we have to move reactively, yet it’s important that we have the equipment soon. For ex-ample, this job required us to be mobi-lizing on-site in about two weeks, so we turned to our local dealer, Flint Equip-ment, to get the specialized excavators needed for this unique opportunity.”

CustomWorks Walks the Slippery Slope

Flint Equipment has been a dealer of high-end construction and forestry equipment for more than 40 years. The company used specialty fabrication from CustomWorks, a brand company of Paladin, to help provide Benton-Georgia with the machines suitable for the unstable Marcellus shale terrain. CustomWorks helps its dealers deliver specialized solutions that enhance ex-cavators, backhoes, bulldozers, dump trucks, skid steers and wheel loaders.

Unique Equipment Excels on Multi-Million Dollar Natural Gas Project

By Tim Adkisson

made to order

These enhancements include cab and machine guarding, key component protection and other specialty equip-ment upgrades. For this particular job, CustomWorks modified the excavators in its Kernersville, N.C., facility, but in many cases the company was able to send the necessary parts and kits direct-ly to the dealership.

“I’ve partnered with CustomWorks for nearly 10 years, which has helped me better provide our customers with safe, rugged equipment solutions,” said Ja-son Cherry, sales representative for Flint Equipment’s office in Atlanta. “With their help and willingness to work week-ends and a Memorial Day holiday, we were able to quickly customize the initial excavator order with the appropriate en-hancements and get Benton-Georgia on the jobsite in less than two weeks. Each machine was in CustomWorks’ facility for less than four days total.”

A total of 10 John Deere excavators, varying in size and custom features, were modified as part of two different orders and pre-delivered by CustomWorks to the Pennsylvania jobsite directly. Some of the modifications and added work done to the excavators included:

• Grouser Bar Work — To provide ex-tra grip on the sloped terrain, approxi-mately 100 raised, single grouser bars were individually welded to the top of the excavator track pads on each of the four 350 model excavators. This took approximately three days of total labor.

• Grouser Bars Shipped On-Site — For the 200 model excavators that were not customized with grouser bars, Flint Equipment shipped extra grouser bars to the jobsite so they could be installed if needed.

• Customized Auxiliary Hydrau-lic Line Kits — To protect the pipe being laid, the job required Benton-Georgia to sort out the backfill so it mainly consisted of 2-in.-minus dirt without any rocks or abrasive ma-terials. To accomplish this, special

hydraulic systems were installed on four of the 350 model excavators so the contractor could use an Outlaw “padding” bucket to separate out the material and a hammer (hydrau-lic breaker) with the same machine. CustomWorks reconfigured the way the hydraulic circuit was routed back to the hydraulic tank, so the contractor could reverse the hydrau-lic direction if they had to clear a jam in the bucket. A case drain line was also added to these excavators.

• Common Hydraulic Line Kits — Two of the 200 model excavators received two-way electric solenoid hy-draulic line kits that enabled the con-tractor to more effectively use hydrau-lic grapples and hydraulic thumbs.

• Arm Installation — The job required immediate machine turnaround, so Flint Equipment utilized CustomWorks to install arms on two of the excavators that didn’t yet have them.

Two major unexpected floods near-ly derailed the project, delaying the crew one week each time. Some of the Marcellus shale was so steep and slippery from the rain that Benton-Georgia was forced to hook a winch system on the back of each excava-tor to winch the machine up the ter-rain and ensure it would stay in place while performing the work.

“These heavy-duty, customized exca-vators were one of the main reasons we were able to build the pipeline system in the timeframe that the customer asked for,” Lightner said. “The grouser bars really helped keep the machine from sliding off the mountain slopes. The dif-ferent hydraulic kits provided added ver-satility and use of accessories that helped us do our job better, whether that was breaking out the rock to dig the ditch or backfilling the ditch to the specified re-quirements. Instead of just digging, we were able to do multiple tasks on a dif-ficult foundation with each machine.”

One Job Leads To Another

Benton-Georgia was able to success-fully lay approximately six miles of pipe in 45-ft lengths in less than the required three-month window. Finishing the job ahead of schedule, the contractor has been awarded more than six additional natural gas pipeline jobs since. To date, Lightner estimates that he’s used the cus-tomized excavators to lay approximately 30 miles of pipeline ranging from six inches in diameter up to 24 in.

“The machines and customizations are holding up well, as we are still using them today,” stated Lightner. “We use them in a very harsh environment, yet they still perform. We won’t hesitate to work with Flint Equipment again, especially when we need equipment customizations.”

Tim Adkisson is the market manager for CustomWorks, a brand company of Paladin based in Davenport, Iowa.


CustomWorks modified 10 John Deere excavators, varying in size and custom features, so the machines could tackle the tough terrain of the jobsite in the Marcellus shale.

To provide extra grip on the slippery 45-degree slopes, 100 raised, single grouser bars were individually welded to the top of the 350 model excavator track pads.

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While Enduro Pipeline offers a variety of pig configurations, many pipeline systems require a specialty pig designed for an out of the ordinary task. These types of projects are what Enduro specializes in. For more than 24 years, Enduro has set the benchmark for cleaning pig evolution; designing custom pigs uniquely suited for most any pipeline environment imaginable.

In late 2012, the company’s experience, in combination with a unique pipeline cleaning opportunity resulted in a revolutionary cleaning tool called the “Hammer Pig.” Designed for the removal of hard

debris build-up such as barium sulfate, sodium chloride and other similar types of troublesome debris that restrict pipeline flow, the Hammer Pig is designed to effectively chip away at these unyielding types of debris, steadily breaking it lose from the pipe wall. The uniquely designed wheel assembly creates a hammering effect causing debris adhered to the pipe wall to break lose, thereby paving the way for other pig types to effectively finish the cleaning process with more ease. Available in sizes 6-in. diameter and larger, the Hammer Pig is an efficient method to clean a pipeline when chemicals and other traditional, mechanical pigging

configurations have proven to have little or no effect.

For more information, visit www.enduropls.com.

exPoPiPeline Product

Enduro Hammer Pig

Precision Pigging High-Resolution Geometry/Deformation ServicesPrecision Pigging provides high-resolution deformation services for pipelines ranging in diameter from 6 to 48 in. throughout North and South America and worldwide. With nearly 25 years combined management experience specializing in deformation inspections, Precision Pigging is quickly becoming a leader in accurate, timely and cost-effective geometry integrity assessments.

99.9 Percent Probability of Detec-tion: The detection accuracy of Preci-sion Pigging’s equipment has led to the majority of the company’s clients being consistently pleased with the quality of work and technical data provided.

Remarkable First Run Success Rate: Precision Pigging’s deformation tools are rugged and dependable, which allows for an

impressive first-run success rate in both new construction and on-stream operations.

Rapid On-Site Deployment: With a strong focus on customer service, Precision Pigging is able to offer rapid on-site deployment to clients throughout its service area, as well as individualized and personal contact from senior project managers throughout the duration of the project from inception to completion.

Project Completion Goals Achieved: Use of Precision Pigging’s state-of-the-art equipment, combined with highly accurate interpretation, allows for anomalies to be quickly and easily located, excavated and repaired prior to pipeline commissioning without unnecessary and expensive investigation digs.

Competitive Cost: Precision Pigging’s cost is as competitive as any in the industry. Moreover, clients can budget appropriately and avoid cost overruns knowing that Precision Pigging’s final invoice matches initial bid projections without any hidden fee surprises.

For more information, visit www.precisionpigging.com.



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With the continued evolution of in-line inspection (ILI) technologies and techniques, the term “unpiggable” has become far less menacing in recent years, largely due to the commitment of ILI companies like ROSEN whose ingenuity and investment in new inspection technologies has moved the mark continuously forward in terms of ILI capabilities.

ROSEN’s development of the industry’s shortest bi-directional inspection tools provides solutions for many common challenges for pipelines deemed “unpiggable,” such as tool access, mechanical design restrictions and operating conditions. Pipeline operators will benefit from the ROSEN bi-directional tool fleet in ways that provide considerable time and cost-savings, as well as the additional

benefits associated with obtaining ILI data.

The benefits provided to the pipeline operator are considerable: utilizing an ILI method that does not require the installation of an additional pig trap results in enormous cost savings. Additionally, the acquisition of ILI data allows for more comprehensive integrity management decisions to be made that other inspection methods, like DA and hydro-testing, do not provide (i.e., the identification of sub-critical corrosion features and corrosion growth assessments).

With a commitment to research and

development, ROSEN has further closed the gap between the definition of “piggable” and “unpiggable” pipelines.

For more information, visit www.roseninspection.net.

ROSEN Bidirectional In-line Inspection Solution

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A pioneer in pipeline pigging products since the 1940s, T.D. Williamson (TDW) offers a wide variety of batching, displacement and cleaning pigs. These include the PitBoss cleaning pig, which is specifically designed to remove soft to medium-hard deposits from internal pits while also serving as an excellent general purpose cleaning pig.

In order for corrosion inhibitors and biocides to function effectively, it is first essential to remove deposits from pits along the inside diameter of a pipeline. Unless these deposits are removed, they can serve to shield any active corrosion from preventive measures, allowing the cell to continue its corrosive action.

Each PitBoss cleaning pig features hundreds of flat cleaning wires, each of which acts independently as both a spring (forcing itself out into pits) and as a scraper. By conforming to the inside diameter of the pipe, regardless of wall thickness, these wires effectively clean the pipe wall. In this way, the PitBoss cleaning pig can increase the effectiveness of corrosion inhibitors and biocides, and decrease the risk of leaks caused by internal corrosion.

Available in sizes 6 in. (150 mm) and larger, the PitBoss cleaning pig is also available in dual diameter configurations.

For more information, visit www.tdwilliamson.com.

exPoPiPeline Product

TDW PitBoss Cleaning Pig


Deadline: 9/27/2013


Business Cards


North American Oil & Gas Pipelines Calendar

november13-14API Cybersecurity Conference & ExpoWestin Houston Memorial CityHouston Web: www.api.org

13-14DCA Fall MeetingGaylord TexanGrapevine, TexasWeb: www.dcaweb.org

13-15DUG East“Developing Unconventionals”David L. Lawrence Convention CenterPittsburghWeb: www.dugeast.com

14CAPP Environmental Issues SeminarTelus Convention CenterCalgary, AlbertaWeb: www.capp.ca

december3-5Arctic Technology ConferenceGeorge R. Brown Convention CenterHoustonWeb: www.arctictechnologyconference.org

10-12CAPP Investment SymposiumTorontoWeb: www.capp.ca

2013January7-10API Inspection Summit Galveston Island Convention CenterGalveston, TexasWeb: www.api.org

29-31Marcellus MidstreamDavid L. Lawrence Conference CenterPittsburghWeb: www.marcellusmidstream.com

29-31 Underground Construction Technology (UCT) International Conference & ExhibitionGeorge R. Brown Convention CenterHoustonWeb: www.uctonline.com

31-Feb. 1Pipe Tech Americas SummitWoodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention CenterHoustonWeb: www.pipetechamericas.com

February10-14 NUCA Convention 2013Sheraton Phoenix Downtown HotelPhoenix Web: www.nuca.com

11-14 International Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference(Plus Training Courses and Exhibition)Marriott Westchase HotelHouston Web: www.clarion.org/ppim/ppim13

12-16PLCA Annual ConventionHyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey RanchScottsdale, Ariz.Web: www.plca.org

March5-10DCA Annual ConventionLoews Miami Beach HotelMiamiWeb: www.dcaweb.org

19-20Shale Gas Development and Water Issues SymposiumAmerican Institute of Professional GeologistsAustin, TexasWeb: www.aipg.org

April2-4DCA Safety CongressBellagio Las VegasWeb: www.dcaweb.org

The Events Pipeline Conferences, Meetings & Trade Shows

Advertiser .......................... Website .............................................Page Argo UTV ............................ www.ARGOutv.com ................................32Canusa-CPS ....................... www.canusa.com .....................................5Darby Equipment ............... www.darbyequip.com ...............................9E-Z Line Support Company Inc .................... www.ezline.com ......................................48FAE USA Inc. ...................... www.FAEUSA.com .................................43Fecon Inc. ........................... www.fecon.com ......................................35Girard Industries ................. www.GirardIndustries.com .....................27Horizontal Technology Inc. . www.horizontaltech.com ..........................7Laney Directional Drilling.... www.laneydrilling.com ............................14McLaughlin ......................... www.mightymole.com ............................13Mesa ................................... www.mesaproducts.com ........................45Michels Corporation ........... www.michels.us ......................................23Minnesota Limited, LLC ..... www.mnlimited.com ...............................45NACE .................................. www.nace.org/education ..........................3

Advertiser .......................... Website .............................................Page NASTT’s No-Dig 2013 ........ www.nodigshow.com ..............................47Pemberton Inc. ................... www.pembertoninc.com .........................29Pettibone ............................ www.gopettibone.com ............................12Pipeline Inspection Co. ...... www.picltd.com ......................................15PolyGuard Products ........... www.PolyguardProducts.com ................37PPIM 2013 .......................... www.clarion.org ......................................39Precision Pigging, LLC ....... www.PrecisionPigging.com ....................30Rig Source .......................... www.rigsourceinc.com .............................2Sawyer Manufacturing ....... www.sawyermfg.com .............................33Shale Oil & Gas Symposium ............... www.shalegassymposium.com ..............47StraightLine HDD ............... www.straightlinehdd.com .......................11Sunbelt Equipment Marketing, Inc ................... www.semicrawlers.com ..........................31WennSoft ............................ www.wennsoft.com .................................17

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