houses. The hydrogen unit will use Foster Wheeler technology
for steam methane reforming.
Alliance last October said it invested $1 billion of a planned
$1.4 billion for the upgrade. Projects completed at that time
included installation of a 350,000 tonne/year catalytic reformer
and conversion of the refinery to use of gas from fuel oil as
operating fuel.
Last year Alliance completed an upgrade of an isomerization unit, bringing capacity to 120,000 tonnes/year. Alliance
expects to begin delivery gasoline meeting Euro- 5 standards
this year. Alliance also is working on a pipeline connection to
the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean crude oil pipeline. A first phase
includes construction of a transfer unit and 28-km pipeline.
Completion of the first phase will allow the refinery to receive
40,000 b/d from the ESPO pipeline next year.
A second phase, including construction of a pump station
and upgrade of an existing pump station by pipeline owner
Transneft, will increase delivery capacity to the refinery to
100,000 b/d in 2015.
TRANSPORTATION QUICK TAKES
Pembina to expand crude-by-rail terminalling
Pembina Pipeline Corp. acquired a site in the Alberta Industrial
Heartland to support future development of a rail, terminalling, and storage complex to be called the Heartland Hub. The
site features an existing rail system and utility infrastructure.
Heartland Hub is a further build-out of Pembina’s larger Nexus terminal (PNT), providing crude oil and diluent customers
with terminalling, storage, and rail.
The site is in close proximity to major oil sands pipeline
rights-of-way, existing crude oil and petrochemical infrastructure, and Pembina’s Redwater site, the company said. Pembina expects Heartland Hub to provide interconnectivity via
pipeline and rail to refining markets. The company described
Heartland Hub as an integral part of PNT, which interconnects
Pembina’s terminalling infrastructure in the Edmonton, Redwater, and Fort Saskatchewan areas.
Key features of the acquisition noted by the company include
232 acres of well-developed industrial land; more than 5,000
linear ft of rail track, currently serviced by CN Rail; 160 acres
of adjacent, existing Pembina land, which can be developed
for future merchant storage and rail expansions; 1,280 acres
of Pembina salt rights, close enough to support future cavern
development; and the ability to access more than 4-million b/d
of existing and future oil sands and conventional crude through
current and potential pipeline interconnections.
Pembina also entered into a multiyear agreement with a major North American refiner to load up to 40,000 b/d of oil railcars using existing PNT infrastructure, starting immediately.
Gazprom signs terms for pipeline natural gas
Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. signed an agree-
ment covering major terms and conditions of supplying natural
gas from Russia to China via the eastern route, in accordance
with terms previously reached. Earlier negotiations covered the
supply of 30 billion cu m (bcm)/year over 30 years starting in
2015. Pricing will not be linked to the Henry Hub.
Previous talks focused on Gazprom’s Eastern Gas Program
(EGP) as favorable to the signing of long-term gas supply deals
from Russia to China. Gazprom began building the Sakhalin-
Khabarovsk-Vladivostok (SKV) gas transmission system as a
key component of the EGP in May 2009. The 1,830-km pipe-
line entered service in September 2011 at an initial capacity of
7 bcm/year, expandable to 47 bcm/year.
Gazprom last year began work on production wells in the
Kirinskoye gas-condensate field in the Sea of Okhotsk. The
company had previously completed a 139-km onshore pipeline
to carry processed gas from the field to the SKV system’s Sakha-
lin main compressor station (OGJ Online, Aug. 6, 2012).
Last year it also indicated plans to accelerate work on the
EGP, including a pipeline between Yakutia and a tie-in to SKV
at Khabarovsk (OGJ Online, Sept. 17, 2012). The 3,200-km
pipeline will parallel the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean crude
oil trunkline, entering service in late 2017 with an eventual
capacity of 61 bcm/year. Gazprom maps published at the time
showed plans to export gas to China through this pipeline at
Blagoveshchensk and the SKV pipeline at Dalnerechensk.
Point Thomson pipeline completion near
ExxonMobil Corp. said it expects work to be completed this
winter on a pipeline that will carry condensate from the Point
Thomson Unit on Alaska’s North Slope to the Trans-Alaska
Pipeline System (TAPS). The company said condensate production will start at a rate of 10,000 b/d. The pipeline will have
capacity of 70,000 b/d.
According to government filings, the elevated, 22-mile, 12-
in. pipeline will connect the Point Thomson central production
facility with BP’s Badami oil pipeline, which connects with TAPS.
An agreement reached last year to start condensate production by the 2015-16 winter moved leaseholders—which also include BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Leede—and the state
away from a 7-year deadlock over how to develop Point Thomson’s reserves and transport production (OGJ Online, Apr. 9,
2012). The unit is a retrograde condensate reservoir with gas
reserves estimated at 8 tcf.
ExxonMobil said Worley Parsons Group Inc., the primary
EPC management contractor has awarded two subcontracts to
CH2M Hill Alaska related to the next phases of development:
• For installation of production system modules, the main
components of the permanent Point Thomson facilities. The
subcontractor will work with ASRC Energy Services and Delta
Construction on field activities beginning in 2014.
• For fabrication and installation of the standby power-gen-eration module, which will provide backup power for the entire
facility in 2014.
