Underground Construction - November 2019 - 18

Midyear International Update

volumes was hindered by a mild winter
and high inventory levels. While the longterm outlook for LNG demand remains
generally favorable for a region seeking
to reduce its dependence on Russia, the
market for imports from the United States
and other regions is expected to be bumpy
through 2026.
Laying of the Balticconnector pipeline
in the Baltic Sea connecting Finland and
Estonia has been completed, and the system is scheduled for connection to ground
pipelines in both countries this fall with
commercial operations to begin Jan. 1.
Gas will flow both ways through the 93.21
miles pipeline, which will have a capacity of
7.2 MMcm per day.
The $341.34 million Balticconnector
project, primarily funded by the European
Union, will allow Finland to diversify the
source of its gas imports, which were previously piped solely by Russia's Gazprom.
Some of the gas to be transported will continue to originate from Russia, but the link
will also be able to transport gas that arrives
at Baltic terminals in a liquefied state (LNG)
and also supplies from continental Europe.
Another planned pipeline linking
Norwegian natural gas fields to markets
in Denmark and Poland is on track for
completion by October 2022, Poland's
Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said.
Poland's state-run PGNiG has agreed to
buy Equinor's 42.38 percent stake in the
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NOVEMBER 2019 | UConOnline.com

Tommeliten Alpha gas and condensate field
in Norway and is targeting a total gas output
of 2.2 Bcm by 2022 from 0.55 Bcm in 2017.
Construction of the 546-mile TransAdriatic Pipeline (TAP), has crossed the
mountains of Albania, putting it on track
to start delivering gas to Europe next year.
Stretching from Turkey's border across
Greece, Albania's mountains, and the
Adriatic Sea to Italy, TAP will transport up
to 10 Bcm of natural gas a year from the
Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Italy
from next year. Most of the pipelaying has
now been completed in Greece and Albania.
After years of delays, Bulgaria has
started building a $268 million, 113-mile
gas pipeline with Greece that will end the
Balkan country's total dependence on
Russian gas and help diversify supplies in
southeastern Europe.
Despite plans to build a gas hub and
secure natural gas and LNG supplies from
different sources, Bulgaria also hopes to
keep Russian natural gas flowing through
its territory to central Europe. It plans
to construct a 280-mile pipeline from its
southern border with Turkey to its western
border with Serbia to create a link to
deliver gas from the TurkStream pipeline
to central Europe.

Middle East
The energy landscape of the oil-dominant
Middle East continues to evolve following
large discoveries of natural gas in the
Eastern Mediterranean in the past decade.
As the region demands more natural gas primarily for domestic electricity production,
Israel and Egypt are seeking to grow exports
of gas and LNG, respectively, creating
demand for construction of new pipelines
and LNG export and import facilities.
Jordan and Iraq are nearing final
approval for an $18 billion oil pipeline that
would carry 1 MMbpd of oil from the Iraqi
city of Basra through the Jordanian port
of Aqaba and across the Red Sea to Egypt.
The head of Jordan's Lower House Energy
Committee, MP Jamal Gammoh, said that
both countries are accelerating preparations
for the 1,000-mile pipeline after an agreement was reached between all three nations
to extend the pipeline into Egypt. Jordan
currently imports 98 percent of its needed
energy, using about 134,000 bpd, with most
of that coming from Saudi Arabia.

Iraq Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi
said his country is close to signing a $53
billion, 30-year energy agreement with
Exxon Mobil and PetroChina to build a
water injection project to feed oil wells in
the south, as well as rehabilitate and build
new export pipelines, Abdul Mahdi said.

South-Central America
& Caribbean
Development in Argentina's Vaca Muerta
shale continued to gain momentum with a
June announcement that ExxonMobil will
proceed with construction of pipeline and
export infrastructure to support an expected 55,000 oil-equivalent bpd by 2024.
State oil company YPF said it will
significantly boost oil and gas production
and infrastructure expansion investing
between $4 billion and $5 billion per year
through 2022. Energy Minister Gustavo
Lopetegui said in May that he expects a
pipeline construction contract to transport
up to 22 million cubic meters of gas production per day from the Vaca Muerta to
Buenos Aires to be awarded by September.
The pipeline would be more than 400 miles
long, according to early projections.
After five years of waiting, the state
of Bahia has started construction on the
second section of the Gas Southwest
pipeline, which will be one of the largest
pipelines in the interior of Brazil. With a
total planned investment of $100 million,
the Southwest Gas pipeline will extend 190
miles, becoming the second largest in the
country, connecting municipalities from
Ipiaú to Brumado with its three phases. The
first, 45-mile section began construction in
August 2018 at an estimated cost of $28.5
million. Work on the second 53-mile section, valued at $38 million, began in July,
and the final 84-mile section is scheduled
to begin construction in September.
In the Caribbean, the generating
company AES Andrés, a subsidiary of AES
American, began construction of a $100
million, 30.8-mile gas pipeline following an
agreement with mining company Barrick
Gold. The two companies have signed a 10year natural gas supply contract to enable
the conversion of the Quisqueya I power
generation facility from heavy fuel oil to
natural gas. The project includes 12-inch
branches required for interconnection with
the Sultana del Este power plant. *
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