A bipartisan group of US senators urged US President Barack Obama to quickly approve the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project now that Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) has approved its new route across the state (OGJ Online, Jan. 22, 2013).

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on Jan. 21 submitted its environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the Albanian section of the proposed natural gas pipeline to Albania’s national licensing center.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) notified US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton that he has approved the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline’s new route across the state.

GAIL (India) Ltd., Mumbai, earlier this month commissioned the 5-million tonne/year Dabhol LNG terminal at Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, about 210 miles south of Mumbai.

The US Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment on a proposed Wyoming natural gas development involving up to 4,250 wells on 265,000 acres in Fremont, Natrona, and Sweetwater counties. It also wants comments on possibly amending the 2007 Casper Resource Management Plan, which could be required for the project, it added, BLM’s Lander field office said on Jan. 17.

Authorizing US LNG exports would send positive signals not just to producers, but also to capital markets that would in turn finance new transportation systems, experts suggested at a conference on American energy exports.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has signed a cooperation framework agreement with Shenergy Group and Yangkou Port Co. Ltd. to build the Rudong-Haimen-Chongming natural gas pipeline. The 89.5-km pipeline will deliver 2.4 billion cu m/year from Jiangsu province to Chongming Island in Shanghai.

A group of US Midcontinent mayors and the American Petroleum Institute separately urged the US Department of Energy to authorize LNG exports.

PetroChina let a compression contract for its Third West-East Pipeline Project (WEPP 3) to Rolls-Royce.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) has begun restoring the flow of an estimated 80,000 b/d of crude oil in the Brent pipeline system following a precautionary pipeline shutdown because of a hydrocarbon release into a platform leg on the Cormorant Alpha platform, which remains shutin.

Project permits from federal agencies other than the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are taking interstate pipelines longer to obtain since passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, a new study by the INGAA Foundation found.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) shut down Cormorant Alpha platform in the northern UK North Sea and the Brent System pipeline infrastructure extending through the platform as a precaution following a hydrocarbon release into one platform leg.