Home » Posts tagged 'pipeline' (Page 2)

Tag Archives: pipeline

Secret cable and Dutch government official confirm that Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen is partly motivated by an ambitious US-backed pipeline fantasy

Nearly 3,000 civilians have been slaughtered and a million displaced in Saudi Arabia’s noble aerial bombardment of Yemen, which is backed by the United States and Britain.

Over 14 million Yemenis face food insecurity – a jump of 12 percent since June 2015. Out of these, three million children are malnourished. And across the country, an estimated 20 million people cannot safely access clean water.

The Saudi air force has systematically bombed Yemen’s civilian infrastructure in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. An official UN report to the Security Council leaked last month found that the Saudis have “conducted airstrikes targeting civilians and civilian objects … including camps for internally displaced persons and refugees; civilian gatherings, including weddings; civilian vehicles, including buses; civilian residential areas; medical facilities; schools; mosques; markets, factories and food storage warehouses; and other essential civilian infrastructure, such as the airport in Sanaa, the port in Hudaida and domestic transit routes.”

US-made cluster bombs have been dropped on residential areas – an act that even the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon tepidly concedes “may amount to a war crime”.

In other words, Saudi Arabia is a rogue state. But make no mistake. This kingdom is our rogue state.

The US and British governments supplying Saudi Arabia with weapons to be unleashed on Yemeni civilians pretend they are not involved in the war, not responsible for the war crimes of our rogue state ally.

A UK Ministry of Defence spokesperson insisted that British forces were merely advising “on best practice targeting techniques … UK military personnel are not directly involved in Saudi-led coalition operations.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Turkey Denies Russian Ships Access via Bosporus

December 3, 2015

Turkey Denies Russian Ships Access via Bosporus

What is becoming clear is that Turkey has most likely NOT acted alone against Russia. They have more likely than not fired the first shot in what may become World War III. Turkey has been buying the oil from ISIS and thus funding them. Yet at the same time, they are part of NATO and have probably acted with the FULL consent of NATO including the Obama Administration.

The entire Syrian incident I reported back in 2013 that from the outset it was secretly all about getting a pipeline through Syria to Europe so Saudi Arabia could compete with Russia in supplying Europe with natural gas.

There is absolutely no way this shooting down of a Russian plane was Turkey alone nor was it an accident. The plane was over Turkey air space for a few seconds and was shot down in Syria. There was a TV crew there to film the event and within 15 minutes NATO was informed. This was a DELIBERATE act to provoke war.

Now Turkey is escalating it further by blockading all Russian ships to prevent them from accessing the Bosporus. This is clearly an act of war and Russia has defended Syria and its economic interests no different than the USA who has had far less of any economic interest at stake in any other situation.

This is an agenda that is underway. Whether or not those involved are actually trying to start World War III or are too stupid to realize that this is what they are risking seems almost pointless. The real crisis is that this is exactly on time cyclically and this does not look very good as we look ahead.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Impacts of Turkey’s Aggression against Russia. The “Turkish Stream” is Dead. Disruption of Gas Pipeline Routes to the EU. Russia’s Economy in Crisis?

November 28, 2015

Impacts of Turkey’s Aggression against Russia. The “Turkish Stream” is Dead. Disruption of Gas Pipeline Routes to the EU. Russia’s Economy in Crisis?

“Regime change” in Ukraine engineered by the US State Department was largely responsible for the collapse of the “South Stream” gas pipeline project. Washington’s intent was to establish a de facto blockade which would prevent the flow of Russian gas to the European Union.

“The South Stream gas pipeline worth €15.5 billion was intended to pump 67 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Europe annually.

The pipeline’s underwater section 900 km (559 miles) long was intended to run along the bed of the Black Sea from the Russkaya compressor station on the Russian shore to the Bulgarian coast.” (TASS, January 14, 2015)

On December 1, 2014, President Vladimir Putin announced that the project to build the South Stream gas pipeline “was closed due to the European Union’s unconstructive approach to cooperation, including Bulgaria’s decision [pressured by the US] to stop the construction of the pipeline’s stretch on its territory.”

South Stream Pipeline Route Options, source TASS

The South Stream was replaced by the “Turkish Stream”. The scrapping of the South Stream was coupled with the signing in Ankara of a historic December 2014 deal between presidents Vladimir Putin and Recyyp Erdogan.

Under the Russian-Turkish agreement pertaining to gas pipeline routes, Turkey was slated to become a major hub and transit route for the export of Russian natural gas to both Southern and Western Europe.

Russia’s Gazprom in a historical announcement by CEO Alexey Miller in January 2015 confirmed that: The Turkish Stream gas pipeline project was considered “the sole route for Russia’s future supplies of 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Western Europe… The Gazprom head made this statement in response to a question about the fate of Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline project.” (Tass, January 14, 2015)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Transcanada Just Killed The Keystone XL Pipeline

November 2, 2015

Transcanada Just Killed The Keystone XL Pipeline

In an ironic twist, just hours after we discussed the record capital outflow from Canada, resulting from the plunge in oil prices and the mothballing of Canada’s energy industry, Obama’s long-desired goal of killing the Keystone XL pipeline has finally come true.

Moments ago, the WSJ reported that Alberta-based Transcanada asked to suspend its U.S. permit application, “throwing the politically fraught project into an indefinite state of limbo, beyond the 2016 U.S. elections.”

Calgary, Alberta-based TransCanada Corp. sent a letter to the State Department, which reviews cross-border pipelines, to suspend its application while the company goes through a state review process in Nebraska it had previously resisted.
“In order to allow time for certainty regarding the Nebraska route, TransCanada requests that the State Department pause in its review of the Presidential Permit application for Keystone XL,” the company said in the suspension request reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “This will allow a decision on the Permit to be made later based on certainty with respect to the route of the pipeline.”

The WSJ correctly notes that “the move comes in the face of an expected rejection by the Obama administration and low oil prices that are sapping business interests in Canada’s oil reserves.” Clearly the former was never an issue before, however the collapse in oil prices and the resultant plunge in CapEx spending means that the pipeline no longer made much economic sense.

Nexen’s Brand New, Double-Layered Pipeline Just Ruptured, Causing One of the Biggest Oil Spills Ever in Alberta

July 18, 2015

Nexen’s Brand New, Double-Layered Pipeline Just Ruptured, Causing One of the Biggest Oil Spills Ever in Alberta

A pipeline at Nexen Energy’s Long Lake oilsands facility southeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta, spilled about five million liters (32,000 barrels or some 1.32 million gallons) of emulsion, a mixture of bitumen, sand and water, Wednesday afternoon — marking one of the largest spills in Alberta history.

According to reports, the spill covered as much as 16,000 square meters (almost 4 acres). The emulsion leaked from a “feeder” pipe that connects a wellhead to a processing plant.

At a press conference Thursday, Ron Bailey, Nexen vice president of Canadian operations, said the company “sincerely apologize[d] for the impact this has caused.” He confirmed the double-layered pipeline is a part of Nexen’s new system and that the line’s emergency detection system failed to alert officials to the breach, which was discovered during a visual inspection.

At this time, the company claims to have the leak under control, according to CBC News.

Anna Mehler Paperny

✔@amp6

Nexen’s “failsafe” system didn’t detect massive pipeline spill: http://wp.me/p2Y4rw-8SFH

1:36 PM – 17 Jul 2015

The spill comes at a particularly bad time for Canada’s premiers, who are poised to sign an agreement three years in the making to fast-track the approval process for new oil sands pipelines while weakening commitments to fight climate change, according to Mike Hudema, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace.

“As provincial premiers talk about ways to streamline the approval process for new tar sands pipelines, we have a stark reminder of how dangerous they can be,” Hudema said in a statement. “This leak is also a good reminder that Alberta has a long way to go to address its pipeline problems and that communities have good reasons to fear having more built.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Louisiana Environmental Group Warns Santa Barbara Oil Spill Cleanup Workers to Protect Their Health

June 1, 2015

Louisiana Environmental Group Warns Santa Barbara Oil Spill Cleanup Workers to Protect Their Health

An open letter from the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper advises those affected by the Santa Barbara Plains All American Pipeline spill not to participate in the clean-up effort.

“We do not want to see your citizens’, workers’, and volunteers’ health harmed in the way we have seen it damaged along our Gulf Coast after the 2010 BP oil disaster,” the letter says.

But the warning may be too late to help some like Osiris Castañeda, a father, ocean lover and filmmaking professor who cleaned up a stretch of Santa Barbara County beach with other volunteers on May 20, the day after a Plains Pipeline spilled an estimated 101,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean.

A video Castañeda produced with the Youth CineMedia Inc, documents a confrontation between the volunteers and officials who ordered them to leave or face being fined or possibly arrested. An official provided a number for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife office of spill prevention and response , which was giving out passes to volunteers, and told them without the passes they were forbidden to be on the beach. The volunteers called to get passes but, to the group’s dismay, a representative from the agency told them no volunteers were needed.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Mexico’s Pemex Plagued By Deadly Offshore Explosions and Major Pipeline Spills

May 27, 2015

Mexico’s Pemex Plagued By Deadly Offshore Explosions and Major Pipeline Spills

It’s been a disastrous year for Pemex, the state-owned Mexican oil company at the center of the nation’s landmark energy reforms.

In just over a month, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) starred in three tragic incidents, two fatal.

First was a deadly explosion aboard a Pemex offshore oil processing platform, which killed at least four, injured 16, and—despite the company’s comments to the contrary—looks to have spilled a miles-long plume of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. A mere 15 days later, a spill from a Pemex pipeline in the state of Tabasco fouled three rivers and temporarily left half a million people without access to drinking water. Fast forward three weeks, and another accident on an offshore rig killed two workers.

These incidents, argues Gustavo Ampugnani, lead energy and climate campaigner for Greenpeace Mexico, foreshadow worsening oil- and gas-related disasters as the country’s massive energy reforms open Mexico’s vast fossil fuel reserves up to international companies that are even less regulated and scrutinized than State-owned Pemex.

Explosion in the Gulf

On April 1st, an explosion rocked the company’s Abkatun-A Permanente platform, engulfing the rig in flames. The massive fireball and subsequent blaze sent hundreds of Pemex contractors into the sea. Nearly two months later, we know that four workers were killed, at least 16 were injured, and three are still missing, now presumed dead. Survivors described a terrifying scene, as crew members “jumped into the sea out of desperation and panic.”

Roger Arias Sanchez, an employee of Pemex contractor Cotemar, told the Associated Press that, “there was nothing you could do but run.”

With the 5-year anniversary of the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf just behind us, Pemex and the Mexican government quickly clamped down communications about the disaster in the oil-rich Campeche Sound shallow water offshore region, offering optimistic, blue sky commentary about the severity of the incident, and the extent of any potential

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Letter to a Plutocrat: Your Pipeline Made Me a Criminal

May 23, 2015

Letter to a Plutocrat: Your Pipeline Made Me a Criminal

Dear Sir/Madam:

I’m writing to you who control our government now — that is, the big corporations of the world. Let’s not pretend it is otherwise. Thanks to a system in which money buys elections, nearly all of our politicians are in your employ.

Thanks for wrecking everything.

If I were a Millennial, this might not surprise me or even be worthy of mention. They have grown up in the system as it exists now, and many of them are too cynical to fight. But I’m from Generation X, and we still thought we had a chance to make our own destinies. In recent years that’s become increasingly difficult.

The future my kids face will include a deteriorating national infrastructure, underfunded public schools full of stressed students and the traumatized poor, and a world of permanent wars started by my own country, mainly against people much worse off than ourselves. And worst of all, their future is jeopardized by your refusal to see that the Earth cannot take anymore plundering of resources.I’m going to be frank. I’m a member of the intellectual elite. I’m not working class and I’m not poor, but those distinctions aren’t what they used to be. My father worked his way out of Depression-era Oklahoma to become a professor at Harvard. I was given the best education money could buy, because that’s what my parents valued. I never got a D or F in my life, and when I got a few Cs (trigonometry nearly killed me), I heard about it from my mother and father–they thought they knew what it took to get ahead in the world. I have degrees from Smith College and Harvard University.

– See more at: http://transitionvoice.com/2015/05/letter-to-a-plutocrat-your-pipeline-made-me-a-criminal/#sthash.ydUlGRuZ.dpuf

Exclusive: TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot

May 1, 2015

Exclusive: TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot

Documents obtained by DeSmogBlog reveal an alarming rate of corrosion to parts of TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline. A mandatory inspection test revealed a section of the pipeline’s wall had corroded 95%, leaving it paper-thin in one area (one-third the thickness of a dime) and dangerously thin in three other places, leading TransCanada to immediately shut it down. The cause of the corrosion is being kept from the public by federal regulators and TransCanada.

“It is highly unusual for a pipeline not yet two years old to experience such deep corrosion issues,” Evan Vokes, a former TransCanada pipeline engineer-turned-whistleblower, told DeSmogBlog. “Something very severe happened that the public needs to know about.”

When TransCanada shut the line down, the company and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told the press that the shutdown was due to “possible safety Issues.” And although an engineer from PHMSA was sent to the site where TransCanada was digging up the pipeline in Missouri, no further information has been made available publicly.

Only after DeSmogBlog made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to PHMSA in August 2013 — which the agency partially responded to this April — was the information revealing the pipeline had deeply corroded in multiple spots exposed. The documents also disclosed a plan to check for a possible spill where the corrosion was detected.

However, documents explaining what caused the corrosion and findings concerning a possible spill were not included in response to DeSmogBlog’s request. According to PHMSA spokesman Damon Hill, documents that might impact an ongoing compliance review the agency is conducting of TransCanada were withheld.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Obama’s Veto of Keystone XL Bittersweet for Texans Forced to Allow the Pipeline on Their Land

February 25, 2015

Obama’s Veto of Keystone XL Bittersweet for Texans Forced to Allow the Pipeline on Their Land

As expected, President Obama today vetoed the Republican bill attempting to allow TransCanada to finish constructing the Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline. While the veto received praise from environmentalists, along with encouragement to reject the pipeline entirely, the veto provides little consolation to those in Texas who already have the southern route of the pipeline moving Canadian tar sands under their land.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled that President Obama owned up to his promise to veto the Keystone XL pipeline bill today. But in the same breath I’m spittin’ mad,” Julia Trigg Crawford, Texas landowner who fought TransCanada from taking her land by eminent domain but lost, told DeSmogBlog.

“Nearly three years ago, with the exact same data in front of him he decided to ‘cut through the red tape and fast track’ the southern leg of this project. Where was his ‘climate test’ then?” “Before the ink is dry on this veto, President Obama owes all of us in Texas and Oklahoma an explanation. Better yet, an apology.”

In the constant clamor from high profile environmental groups for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, there is little mention that the president fast-tracked the southern portion of the pipeline. Nor do most people know that TransCanada is already transporting tar sands from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Keystone XL Pipeline’s Economic Argument May Expire: Experts

December 16, 2014

Keystone XL Pipeline’s Economic Argument May Expire: Experts.

The juncture of falling oil prices colliding with TransCanada’s push for its US$8-billion Keystone XL pipeline may undermine the argument that the project makes economic sense, according to analysts.

Canadian oil prices hit a five-year low on Monday, dropping to US$40 a barrel.Benchmark brent oil also hit its lowest since July 2009, slipping from 65 cents to $61.20 per barrel.

Sandy Fielden, RBN Energy’s director of energy analytics, told the L.A. Times the impact of falling prices may rattle support for Keystone XL.

“The economics of this project are becoming increasingly borderline,” she said. But TransCanada isn’t showing any signs it’s fazed by the dropping prices.

Spokesperson Mark Cooper told the publication that its oil-shipper investors “have a good understanding of what the market needs over time. They do not make decisions based on short-term views or changes in commodity prices.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Pipeline Protesters Aren’t Hypocrites for Driving Cars | Joseph McLean

December 8, 2014

Pipeline Protesters Aren’t Hypocrites for Driving Cars | Joseph McLean.

The rallies on B.C.’s Burnaby Mountain are over. The core work is done, the crowds have dispersed. More than 100 people were arrested up there in the mud and rain, before the injunction hit the wall. Scientists and activists, first nations leaders and fresh-faced hippies. Arrested for crossing a line in the forest, a line that turned out to be wrong anyway. In the middle of all this, in the midst of the singing and shouting and media tag teams, Kinder Morgan sunk their test holes into the rock. Burnaby Mountain was stable, they announced — with absolutely no sense of irony.

Opinions run hot around these conflicts, and more is ahead of us. There are many arguments for and against civil protest, but one of the most persistent is that these people are hypocrites. That if you drive a car, take a plane, use hairspray, or otherwise consume fossil fuels in any way, you have no right to stand up.

This comparison is troubling for a number of reasons. First of all, it seeks to reduce the legitimate and complex public concern for this project. Never mind questions ofland sovereignty, spill danger, local jurisprudence, or the loss of provincial independence. Don’t worry about National Energy Board changes that exclude public input and ignore climate science. So what if Bill C-45 exempts pipelines from the water protection act. All you need to know is that protesters really don’t like oil. And yet they drive trucks and wear polyester clothing, can you believe it!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Kinder Morgan leaves Burnaby Mountain in win for pipeline protesters – Waging Nonviolence

December 5, 2014

Kinder Morgan leaves Burnaby Mountain in win for pipeline protesters – Waging Nonviolence.

On the morning of November 28, after weeks of sustained protest, energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan packed up the equipment it had planned to use in the construction of a new pipeline on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia, and left without finishing the job.

Weeks earlier, the company had legally declared a “no protest zone” — valid through December 1 — to keep protesters away from the mountainside construction sites on the grounds that their presence would present a safety hazard and undue expenses. When that wasn’t enough, they filed an application with the British Columbia Supreme Court to extend the injunction for another two weeks. But the court rejectedtheir application, when it was revealed that Kinder Morgan had provided the wrong GPS coordinates for the injunction zone. As a result, charges were also lifted from the over 100 people arrested for civil contempt due to a lack of clarity around where they could and could not be on the mountain.

Most importantly, the ruling means that Kinder Morgan can no longer continue construction on the site, as it has no legal grounds to do so. According to Reuters, the project would have more than tripled the volume of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which transports an estimated 300,000 barrels of tar sands oil daily through Alberta and British Columbia.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Edelman’s TransCanada Astroturf Documents Expose Oil Industry’s Broad Attack on Public Interest | DeSmogBlog

November 22, 2014

Edelman’s TransCanada Astroturf Documents Expose Oil Industry’s Broad Attack on Public Interest | DeSmogBlog.

Documents obtained by Greenpeace detail a desperate astroturf PR strategydesigned by Edelman for TransCanada to win public support for its Energy East tar sands export pipeline. TransCanada has failed for years to win approval of the controversial border-crossing Keystone XLpipeline, so apparently the company has decided to “win ugly or lose pretty” with an aggressive public relations attack on its opponents.

The Edelman strategy documents and work proposals outline a “grassroots advocacy” campaign plan to build support for TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline as well as to undermine public opposition to oil and pipelines generally.

The documents should cause well-deserved embarrassment for Edelman, the largest PR company in the world, as well as TransCanada.

But this is not just a temporary black eye for a PR firm and its corporate client. The Edelman documents reveal a broader industry campaign to undermine the public interest and attack the oil industry’s critics across the board.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Canada regulator says Kinder Morgan wins battle with B.C. suburb | Canada | Reuters

October 24, 2014

Canada regulator says Kinder Morgan wins battle with B.C. suburb | Canada | Reuters.

CALGARY Alberta (Reuters) – Canada’s energy regulator ruled on Thursday that Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP must be allowed access to a park in a Vancouver suburb in order to complete technical work for the planned C$5.4 billion($4.81 billion) expansion of its Trans Mountain oil pipeline.

In its first order on record to a Canadian municipality, the National Energy Board said the City of Burnaby must allow the company to carry out surveys and studies at Burnaby Mountain, a conservation site.

Burnaby sought to block the company’s access to the site after city officials and crews hired by Kinder Morgan clashed last month over whether the company was allowed to cut down a handful of trees on the mountain to do survey work for the new route, work Kinder Morgan said the National Energy Board had approved.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tag Archives: pipeline

Content

Post categories

Economic Links

Energy/Resource Links

Environmental Links

Geopolitical Links

Liberty Links

News Links

Other Links

Survival Skills

Post Archives by Category

Explosion in the Gulf

Post navigation

Latest Posts