MasTec fined $1.5 million for Oregon pipeline problems

EUGENE, Ore. - MasTec Inc., the contractor fired after being hired to build a natural gas pipeline from Roseburg to Coquille,Ore., has been ordered to pay $1.5 million in penalties to the U.S. Treasury because of damage it caused to pristine streams and rivers.
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan issued the order despite finding that
government agencies provided inadequate oversight of the $51 million project. And though the contractor violated the Clean Water Act, the judge said there did not appear to be serious environmental harm.
The project was plagued by problems from the summer of 2003, when work began on the 60-mile long, 12-inch pipeline, until it was terminated. Crews filled streambeds with drilling spoils, threatening fish habitat. Regulators later discovered that project managers had not taken adequate steps to protect
hillsides from erosion, leading to more sediment in fish spawning habitat.
Coos County terminated its contract with Coral Gables, Fla.-based MasTec
in April 2004, and an Oregon firm finished the project later that year.
Residents and environmental groups complained early and often about the
project, contending that the state Department of Environmental Quality,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Coos County were lax in their
oversight of a project that crossed sensitive terrain, including dozens
of parcels of private property.
Officials initially maintained that the project was on track and that state and federal clean water laws were being followed. But as contrary evidence piled up, legal battles ensued.

India’s Reliance seeking to acquire oil storage in U.S.

NEW DELHI - India's Reliance Industries wants to acquire storage on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast to sell fuel, a senior official said. Some deals already in progress are expected to be announced shortly.
"We are looking for storages in the East Coast, the Gulf Coast and the West Coast... We are under process to acquire in East Coast and the Gulf Coast," the company official, who declined to be named due to company policy, told the Reuters news agency.
It was not immediately clear if Reliance would lease or buy the storage.
Trade sources say the volume of the storage facilities could be about 200,000-250,000 cubic meters and a deal is expected to be announced by end-March.
The firm would use the storage to market oil products from its recently commissioned 580,000 b/d refinery, owned by subsidiary Reliance Petroleum.
The new plant, sited next to the group's existing 660,000-bpd refinery, has turned Reliance's Jamnagar complex into the world's biggest oil refining facility.
Reliance recently started gasoline trading operations in the United States, adding liquidity to physical trading. Its office, located in Texas, will trade gasoline both on the U.S. Gulf Coast and New York Harbor markets.
"Southeast Asia is surplus, Europe is almost flat and the U.S. is the only market where they can sell the products. They may float their own brand at a later date," said a trade source.

Colonial indefinitely delays $3 billion expansion as consumption falls

ATLANTA, Ga. - Colonial Pipeline on Feb. 23 said it has indefinitely postponed plans to expand its refined products system from Baton Rouge, La., to Atlanta.
Demand for gasoline and other petroleum products is down, making it difficult to project future market conditions, the company said in a news release.
Tim Felt, Colonial's new president and CEO, said the Alpharetta-based company was "eager to build this new pipeline, but we believe the prudent and conservative approach is best at this time."
Colonial had planned to start construction on the $3 billion pipeline in 2011.
In Georgia, negotiations with about 500 landowners for easements in Cobb. Paulding, Carroll and Haralson counties would have started in 2010.
Now the timeline is uncertain, Sam Whitehead, a Colonial spokesman, said.
Colonial announced plans to build a third, 460-mile mainline next to its two existing pipelines in 2006. Colonial's pipeline system, which runs underground from Houston to the New York harbor, transports about 70 percent of the petroleum used in Georgia, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Despite the delay, the company is still seeking the permits from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. A decision is expected next month, said State Geologist Jim Kennedy.

Florida Gov. Crist says opposed to Calypso pipeline off Fort Lauderdale

MIAMI, Fla. – Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced at a town hall meeting in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 18 that he opposes the proposed Calypso pipeline off the Fort Lauderdale coast, signaling the project's demise.
"If you think about one of these huge tankers being off the coast near many of my friends, so close by, how can you support that?'' the governor asked."So I don't support it"
When a woman in the audience asked Crist to put Calypso to bed, he said:"I think it's already in bed. It's gone."
Calypso is the deep-water natural gas port planned for the waters off their beach. Crist's biggest applause line, by far, came with his promise to kill the project.
Fort Lauderdale city officials and homeowners have been fighting the proposed offshore gas pipeline project for several months. Residents, who expressed safety concerns about the project, gave Crist a standing ovation after he announced his opposition, the first time Crist has publicly signaled his opinion about the pipeline.

Maryland, Baltimore County appeal FERC decision on LNG plant

BALTIMORE, Md. - Maryland and Baltimore County officials have asked federal energy regulators to rescind approval of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point in eastern Baltimore County and an 88-mile pipeline to Pennsylvania.
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler called the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision "hasty" and criticized the commission for issuing its approval order before the completion of critical environmental reviews.
"By all appearances, the order was issued as quickly as possible after the issuance of the final environmental impact statement in an effort to approve the project before the change in presidential administrations," Gansler wrote to the FERC yesterday.
The state also contends that the commission used outdated information about the project's benefits.
"We are saying that the decision was based on incomplete data, where there was the promise of full and accurate data," Austin Schlick, chief of litigation for the attorney general's office, said yesterday. "The commission also misapplied data and misread and understated environmental impacts of this project."

Sunoco shuts Maumee crude oil pipeline in Midwest after spill

HOUSTON - Sunoco Logistics shut a 142,000 b/d crude pipeline linking Ohio to Michigan after an oil spill at the line's pump station in Cygnet, Ohio, Sunoco said on Feb. 19.
The Maumee pipeline was shut down on Feb 18 and it was unclear when it would restart, a Sunoco operating official in Houston said.
Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski said the size of the oil spill - some of which seeped into the nearby Portage River - was not yet known.
The company stopped the leak late on the morning of Feb. 19, according to Thomas Golembeski, a spokesman for Sunoco, which operates the line. Efforts to clean up the spill were under way, Golembeski said. The exact cause of the release remained under investigation, he said.
The pipeline carries 142,000 barrels a day of crude oil.
Industry sources said the pipeline outage was unlikely to affect refinery operations in the Midwest unless it is prolonged.

Ice formation halts LNG deliveries on Algonquin's HubLine system

HOUSTON - Ice formation on Algonquin Gas Transmission's HubLine system prevented a liquefied natural gas tanker offshore Boston from making any
deliveries to the Algonquin city-gates and neighboring markets, company
officials said in a Feb. 13 interview.
According to Platts, deliveries ceased Feb. 1 on Algonquin's HubLine, a pipeline through which LNG from Excelerate Energy's Northeast Gateway terminal enters Algonquin. Flow data also indicated that the three Bcf tanker has unloaded less than 15 percent of its capacity since mid-January.
A spokeswoman for Spectra Energy, Algonquin's parent, said that an "ice-type formation" was found on HubLine on or around Feb. 6. "The formation is related to residual water from hydrostatic testing from last year," Mary Lee Hanley said.
Hanley added that maintenance is ongoing and deliveries have only been
restricted and not completely shut in.