ANCHORAGE - TransCanada Corp. has awarded a contract to URS Corp. to develop a preliminary feasibility and engineering study for a multi-billion dollar gas treatment plant that would be part of an Alaska natural gas pipeline project, TransCanada vice president Tony Palmer said.
Arctic Slope Energy Services, a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., will provide engineering services to URS on the contract, he said.
Palmer said the engineering and design work, as well as cost estimates for the gas plant, would be combined with other engineering and environmental work TransCanada is doing to develop overall cost estimates for its project.
Cost estimates are needed for an open season planned in 2010 in which the pipeline company will solicit customers to ship gas on its pipeline. The URS and ASRC Energy work is due to be complete in early 2010, Palmer said.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Hawk awarded personnel services contract by Alyeska Pipeline
ANCHORAGE - Hawk Consultants LLC has been awarded a multi-year contract by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. to provide professional personnel services to support operation and maintenance of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Hawk is an Alaskan-owned firm specializing in project management services supporting client organizations with people and resources to ensure project success.
Hawk is an Alaskan-owned firm specializing in project management services supporting client organizations with people and resources to ensure project success.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Fuel leak being cleaned up at New York’s JFK Airport
NEW YORK – New York state officials are trying to clean up a serious fuel leak near a runway at JFK Airport.
They discovered the leak last fall along a pipeline that supplies the airport and the rest of the region with millions of gallons of fuel a day.
Buckeye Partners L.P. supplies jet fuel to JFK through a 40-mile pipeline system running from a storage facility in Linden, N.J., via the New York boroughs of Staten Island and Queens. The pipeline consists of two parallel 12-inch pipes buried three to four feet deep. JFK has a total fuel storage capacity of 32 million gallons. It includes 62 tanks in bulk storage as well as 50 miles of underground pipe.
It has not yet been disclosed if Buckeye lines or distribution lines owned by the airport are involved. Buckeye airport lines have leaked in the past.
On March 24, crews were at work digging test holes along the pipeline and looking for more leaked fuel. So far, about 90,000 gallons have been recovered.(Source: WABC)
They discovered the leak last fall along a pipeline that supplies the airport and the rest of the region with millions of gallons of fuel a day.
Buckeye Partners L.P. supplies jet fuel to JFK through a 40-mile pipeline system running from a storage facility in Linden, N.J., via the New York boroughs of Staten Island and Queens. The pipeline consists of two parallel 12-inch pipes buried three to four feet deep. JFK has a total fuel storage capacity of 32 million gallons. It includes 62 tanks in bulk storage as well as 50 miles of underground pipe.
It has not yet been disclosed if Buckeye lines or distribution lines owned by the airport are involved. Buckeye airport lines have leaked in the past.
On March 24, crews were at work digging test holes along the pipeline and looking for more leaked fuel. So far, about 90,000 gallons have been recovered.(Source: WABC)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Did Goldman Sachs engineer 2008 energy price flyup?
TULSA, Okla. – According to an article in the April 13 issue of Forbes magazine by Christopher Helman and Liz Moyer, when oil prices spiked last summer to $147 a barrel, the biggest energy company casualty was Semgroup Holdings, a private firm in Tulsa, Okla., with $14 billion in annual sales.
Semgroup racked up $2.4 billion in trading losses by betting that oil prices would go down, including $290 million in accounts personally managed by then chief executive Thomas Kivisto. Its short positions amounted to the equivalent of 20 percent of the nation's crude oil inventories.
With the credit crunch eliminating any hope of meeting a $500 million margin call, Semgroup filed for bankruptcy on July 22.
Now some of the people involved in cleaning up the financial mess are suggesting that Semgroup's collapse was more than just bad judgment and worse timing. There is evidence of oil price manipulation by traders orchestrating a short squeeze to push up the price of West Texas Intermediate crude to the point that it would generate fatal losses in Semgroup's accounts.
"What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world," says John Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocer turned oil refiner who is attempting to reorganize Semgroup in bankruptcy court. The $500 billion is how much the world would have overpaid for crude had a successful scam pushed up oil prices by $50 a barrel for 100 days.
Numerous people familiar with the events insist that Citibank, Merrill Lynch and especially Goldman Sachs had knowledge about Semgroup's trading positions from their vetting of an ill-fated $1.5 billion private placement deal last spring.
"Nothing's been proven, but if somebody has your book and knows every trade, it would not be difficult to bet against that book and put the company into a tremendous liquidity squeeze," says John Tucker, who is representing Kivisto.
What's known for sure is that Goldman Sachs, through J. Aron & Co., its commodities trading arm, was in position to use such data - and profited handsomely from Semgroup's fall.
Read the rest of the story: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0413/096-sachs-semgroup-goldman-goose-...
Semgroup racked up $2.4 billion in trading losses by betting that oil prices would go down, including $290 million in accounts personally managed by then chief executive Thomas Kivisto. Its short positions amounted to the equivalent of 20 percent of the nation's crude oil inventories.
With the credit crunch eliminating any hope of meeting a $500 million margin call, Semgroup filed for bankruptcy on July 22.
Now some of the people involved in cleaning up the financial mess are suggesting that Semgroup's collapse was more than just bad judgment and worse timing. There is evidence of oil price manipulation by traders orchestrating a short squeeze to push up the price of West Texas Intermediate crude to the point that it would generate fatal losses in Semgroup's accounts.
"What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world," says John Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocer turned oil refiner who is attempting to reorganize Semgroup in bankruptcy court. The $500 billion is how much the world would have overpaid for crude had a successful scam pushed up oil prices by $50 a barrel for 100 days.
Numerous people familiar with the events insist that Citibank, Merrill Lynch and especially Goldman Sachs had knowledge about Semgroup's trading positions from their vetting of an ill-fated $1.5 billion private placement deal last spring.
"Nothing's been proven, but if somebody has your book and knows every trade, it would not be difficult to bet against that book and put the company into a tremendous liquidity squeeze," says John Tucker, who is representing Kivisto.
What's known for sure is that Goldman Sachs, through J. Aron & Co., its commodities trading arm, was in position to use such data - and profited handsomely from Semgroup's fall.
Read the rest of the story: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0413/096-sachs-semgroup-goldman-goose-...
Friday, March 27, 2009
Buckeye Partners units lose $2.03 per share as new offering issued
EMMAUS, Pa. - Buckeye Partners, L.P. (NYSE: BPL) on March 26 announced that it has increased its previously announced public offering of 2,350,000 limited partnership units to 2,600,000 limited partnership units and has priced the offering at $36.25 per unit.
Buckeye units closed on March 26 at $35.90 a unit, down $2.03 from the prior day and 35 cents under the unit price of the new offering, which diluted the value of units existing before the new offering.
Buckeye offered the underwriters of the offering an option to purchase up to 390,000 additional limited partnership units at a bargain price.
Buckeye intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to reduce indebtedness outstanding under its revolving credit facility.
Barclays Capital, Citi, J.P. Morgan, and Wachovia Securities acted as joint book-running managers of the limited partnership unit offering. Deutsche Bank Securities was the co-manager of the offering.
The general partner of Buckeye Partners, L.P. is owned by Buckeye GP Holdings L.P. (NYSE: BGH).
Buckeye shares were heavily traded on the day of the new offering, with 1,783,490 units changing hands.
Buckeye limited partner units are currently paying an annual dividend of $3.55 per share. At the March 26 closing price of $35.90 a share, Buckeye common units were paying a yield of 9.88 percent. With the new float, 48.8 million common units are outstanding.
Buckeye units closed on March 26 at $35.90 a unit, down $2.03 from the prior day and 35 cents under the unit price of the new offering, which diluted the value of units existing before the new offering.
Buckeye offered the underwriters of the offering an option to purchase up to 390,000 additional limited partnership units at a bargain price.
Buckeye intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to reduce indebtedness outstanding under its revolving credit facility.
Barclays Capital, Citi, J.P. Morgan, and Wachovia Securities acted as joint book-running managers of the limited partnership unit offering. Deutsche Bank Securities was the co-manager of the offering.
The general partner of Buckeye Partners, L.P. is owned by Buckeye GP Holdings L.P. (NYSE: BGH).
Buckeye shares were heavily traded on the day of the new offering, with 1,783,490 units changing hands.
Buckeye limited partner units are currently paying an annual dividend of $3.55 per share. At the March 26 closing price of $35.90 a share, Buckeye common units were paying a yield of 9.88 percent. With the new float, 48.8 million common units are outstanding.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sem Group’s Sem Logistics oil storage site in UK for sale by auction
TULSA, Okla. - Britain’s largest oil storage facility has been put up for sale after its troubled American owner filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors.
The sale of Sem Logistics, operator of more than 50 huge storage tanks at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, with the capacity to store 8.5 million barrels of crude oil, or about 10 per cent of global daily production, is being handled by Blackstone Group, the American private equity firm.
The auction follows the collapse of Sem Logistics’ parent, the oil trading and services group Sem, which was once one of America’s 20 largest private companies. Last year, Sem suffered hedging losses of more than $2 billion when it was caught on the wrong side of the extreme volatility in global oil prices.
The Sem Group, based in Tulsa, Okla., was later forced to file for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors and is facing restructuring. Among those affected by the collapse of Sem Group are the private equity firms Carlyle Group and Riverstone, whose European division is now led by Lord Browne of Madingley, the former chief executive of BP. They were among the biggest shareholders in the group.
Despite the problems faced by its American parent, the Sem Logistics operation in Wales remains profitable and was isolated from the bankruptcy filing. In recent weeks it has been discreetly offered for sale by Blackstone to a number of potential bidders, including large oil companies and other private equity firms. It is thought that a buyer could be announced within weeks.
As well as the oil storage tanks, the site includes a deep-water port and two jetties capable of handling super-tankers weighing up to 165,000 dead-weight tonnes. Between 2006 and last year, the group invested more than $50 million on the Milford Haven site, refurbishing tanks and improving infrastructure.
The sale of Sem Logistics, operator of more than 50 huge storage tanks at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, with the capacity to store 8.5 million barrels of crude oil, or about 10 per cent of global daily production, is being handled by Blackstone Group, the American private equity firm.
The auction follows the collapse of Sem Logistics’ parent, the oil trading and services group Sem, which was once one of America’s 20 largest private companies. Last year, Sem suffered hedging losses of more than $2 billion when it was caught on the wrong side of the extreme volatility in global oil prices.
The Sem Group, based in Tulsa, Okla., was later forced to file for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors and is facing restructuring. Among those affected by the collapse of Sem Group are the private equity firms Carlyle Group and Riverstone, whose European division is now led by Lord Browne of Madingley, the former chief executive of BP. They were among the biggest shareholders in the group.
Despite the problems faced by its American parent, the Sem Logistics operation in Wales remains profitable and was isolated from the bankruptcy filing. In recent weeks it has been discreetly offered for sale by Blackstone to a number of potential bidders, including large oil companies and other private equity firms. It is thought that a buyer could be announced within weeks.
As well as the oil storage tanks, the site includes a deep-water port and two jetties capable of handling super-tankers weighing up to 165,000 dead-weight tonnes. Between 2006 and last year, the group invested more than $50 million on the Milford Haven site, refurbishing tanks and improving infrastructure.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Enterprise, Duncan announce completion of Sherman Extension
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and Duncan Energy Partners L.P. on March 23 announced that construction has been completed on the 174-mile Sherman Extension expansion of the Enterprise Texas Intrastate natural gas pipeline system which extends through the heart of the prolific Barnett Shale play of North Texas.
Current throughput on the Sherman Extension is approximately 360 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) and is expected to reach about 950 MMcf/d during April 2009, as the remainder of the system’s 48,000 horsepower of compression is brought on line.
The 36-inch diameter pipeline originates at a delivery point on the partnerships’ Texas Intrastate natural gas pipeline system near Morgan Mill, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth, and extends northward to an interconnect with Boardwalk Pipeline Partners L.P.’s Gulf Crossing pipeline near Sherman, Texas.
The completion of the Sherman Extension adds 1.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of incremental takeaway capacity from the region, while providing producers in the Barnett Shale and as far away as the Waha area of West Texas with greater flexibility to reach the most attractive markets, particularly those in the Northeast and Southeast areas of the country.
Current natural gas production from the Barnett Shale is approximately four Bcf/d and is projected to surpass six Bcf/d by 2011.
Current throughput on the Sherman Extension is approximately 360 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) and is expected to reach about 950 MMcf/d during April 2009, as the remainder of the system’s 48,000 horsepower of compression is brought on line.
The 36-inch diameter pipeline originates at a delivery point on the partnerships’ Texas Intrastate natural gas pipeline system near Morgan Mill, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth, and extends northward to an interconnect with Boardwalk Pipeline Partners L.P.’s Gulf Crossing pipeline near Sherman, Texas.
The completion of the Sherman Extension adds 1.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of incremental takeaway capacity from the region, while providing producers in the Barnett Shale and as far away as the Waha area of West Texas with greater flexibility to reach the most attractive markets, particularly those in the Northeast and Southeast areas of the country.
Current natural gas production from the Barnett Shale is approximately four Bcf/d and is projected to surpass six Bcf/d by 2011.
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