Photo courtesy of Partnerships BC Replacement for the 65-year-old John Hart Generating Station will be partially underground to protect fish habitat, boost seismic safety and improve power reliability. Despite recent criticism of exorbitant rate increases tied to its building program, Canadian provincial utility company BC Hydro awarded a $900-million contract to the design-build team of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin and Argentina-based IMPSA to replace the 65-year-old John Hart Generating Station on Vancouver Island.The project involves the construction of a replacement water intake at the John Hart Spillway Dam, replacement of the three penstocks with an approximately 1.2-mile-long tunnel, construction of a new
Photo courtesy of wikimapia. Angola LNG says its plant has a capacity of 5.2 million tons (6.8 Bcm) per year; 360,000 cm of full-containment LNG storage, LPG and condensate storage; and a loading jetty sized to accommodate ships up to 210 cm. Related Links: Ernst & Young Report on Opportunties for Natural Gas Development in Africa IGU World NLG Report 2013 Africa hopes to ramp up its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity by an additional 88.7 metric tonnes per year by 2020, despite the withdrawal of leading U.S. energy company Chevron Corp. from one of the largest liquefaction plants on
Related Links: PwC Report-Shale Gas: New conventions for unconventional development for the engineering and construction industry IEA World Energy Outlook 2013 Report The U.S. will become the world's biggest oil producer within two years, but rising global supplies of shale and other unconventional oils will not reduce the need for OPEC's oil over the next two decades, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said on Nov. 12.Non-OPEC oil production will rise to 52.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2035, up from 49.4 million bpd in 2012 but down from a peak of 55.1 million bpd in 2025, the IEA said
Related Links: Desalination Advocates are Pinning Hopes on New Plant in California Mining firms BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are moving ahead on a planned $3.43-billion water-supply project for the Escondida copper mine in Chile's high desert. The upgrade will include the largest seawater reverse-osmosis desalination plant in the Americas, says Black & Veatch, which announced on Oct. 29 its selection as engineer-of-record for the facility and related marine works. The plant is set to produce about 220,000 cu meters of water a day.The two mining firms are the majority owners of Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, located 3,100
Related Links: People News: Edwards Elevated to Lead Black & Veatch as COO The U.S. natural-gas sector will continue to grow, but market and regulatory forces are putting a damper on the prospects for big-dollar gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas export facilities, Black & Veatch says in a new report.According to B&V’s “2013 Strategic Direction in the North American Natural Gas Industry,” the gas industry—boosted immeasurably by shale gas discoveries and by technology improvements in extracting gas from shale—is “in the midst of significant growing pains.”The report, released October 31, says more than 95% of those surveyed for the
Courtesy DOE Eleven offshore wind projects, totaling more than 3,800 MW, are in advanced stages of development. Related Links: First $1.8B Leg of U.S. Offshore Wind Transmission Link Is Set Statoil Pulls Plug on Maine Offshore Wind Project, but U. of Maine Venture Proceeds Despite low natural-gas prices that are dampening the competitiveness of renewables, the U.S. offshore-wind industry continues to gain ground. Eleven projects, totaling 3,824 megawatts, are in “advanced” stages of development, according to a U.S. Dept. of Energy study by Navigant Consulting.The 11 projects have either received approval for a lease in federal or state waters, conducted
Related Links: GEA release on global geothermal report Activity in the global geothermal market continues to pick up steam, with more than 670 geothermal projects under way in 70 countries, according to new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Geothermal Energy Association. The report, "2013 Geothermal Power: International Market Overview," found that more than 11,700 megawatts of new geothermal capacity, equal to that currently available from existing geothermal systems, are in the early stages of development or under construction, with the U.S., East Africa and Southeast Asia among the hottest markets. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) Executive Director Karl Gawell says the
Norwegian oil-and-gas giant Statoil pulled the plug on its Hywind Maine offshore wind project due to commercial uncertainty, but the University of Maine is forging ahead with plans to build a 12-MW offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine by 2017.“Statoil will now focus on the Hywind concept in Scotland, a project we have matured in parallel with Hywind Maine during the last three years,” according to a Statoil statement released on Oct. 15.Trine Ulla, head of business development for floating wind at Statoil, says, “Regardless of our exit [from] Maine, we will continue to explore the U.S. offshore
Photos courtesy of SASOL Sasol existing chemicals plant in Lake Charles, La.; the South African firm's planned new facilities would be adjacent. Sasols flagship gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar, which it owns in joint venture with Qatar Petroleum, cost much more than its original $5-billion construction estimate, one Wall Street analyst says. Related Links: Sasol Advances U.S. Ethane and Derivatives Project Western Canada Eyes Gas-to-Liquid Production Facility South Africa integrated energy and chemical company Sasol is pushing ahead with its planned gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility and ethane cracker projects in Louisiana, with the latter's final investment decision expected by the first quarter
Photo Courtesy of GE Algeria has one of GE's largest installed equipment bases, including more than 400 gas turbines, 340 compressors and 35,000 kilometers of inspected pipelines. Related Links: East Africa Power Transmission Project Ready for Takeoff After Funding Approval Algeria’s national electricity-and-gas company, Sonelgaz, has, through one of its subsidiaries, signed three power-generation equipment-supply contracts with Fairfield, Conn.-based GE worth $2.7 billion as the country prepares to meet increasing domestic energy consumption, now estimated at 30.9 billion cu meters.The three contracts, awarded on Sept. 23 by Sonelgaz’s Société Algérienne de Production de l’Electricité (SPE Spa), are for the supply
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