>>They have stopped every new drilling project, all natural gas new lines, and any other energy proposal for nearly 30 years...<<
That is simply untrue. There is continual drilling of new oil & gas wells in the USA, and we are currently experiencing a major buildout of natural gas pipelines such as the Rockies Express pipeline...
Burrowing through Indiana
reporter-times.com
Ronald Hawkins rhawkins@reporter-times.com
October 16, 2008
MORTON
Hundreds of workers are cutting their way across central Indiana as they labor to connect Rockies Express Pipeline to its Monroe County, Ohio, endpoint.
The 640-mile pipeline, which will cut through Morgan County, received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval this spring. Work in central Indiana began last month.
A parking lot in Cloverdale is filled with trailers and hundreds of cars whose drivers are shuttled to the current work site. The pipeline they are constructing will be delivering natural gas in less than a year, said Allen Foe, public affairs manager for Rockies Express, on a tour Tuesday of the work site. He estimated that 400 welders, pipe fitters and others are based in Cloverdale during this stage of construction.
The pipeline is the final leg of the more than 1,600-mile Rockies Express (REX) pipeline that begins in Colorado. It is designed to move natural gas from gas fields in the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest and eastern cities. REX documents say it will move between 1.5 billion and 2.0 billion cubic feet of gas per day from Colorado and Wyoming to markets in the Midwest and the East.
Several crews in the states from Missouri to Ohio are working on the pipeline simultaneously. The central Indiana crews are installing one-mile of pipeline per day.
Before visitors are taken on the tour, however, they are given a lecture about the environmental and other safeguards the project is following in completing projects.
Restoring properties to their original surface state after the pipelines are laid is part of the process. To do that, topsoil and subsoil are separated when they are removed to make way for the pipelines.
The 42-inch diameter pipes are being buried at least five-feet deep. Only in a few spots will the pipes be slightly smaller along the 640-mile route, Foe said.
After interior and exterior welds connecting pipes are completed, “they are buried as soon as possible,” Foe said.
By April, the pipeline in Putnam County will be able to deliver natural gas to its Indiana customers. Those include Citizens Gas and Indiana Gas, Foe said. By June 15, it is scheduled to reach Lebanon, Ohio,
REX is a joint development of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, Centra Pipelines and Storage, and ConocoPhillips.
According to a REX pamphlet, experts predict that the U.S. demand for natural gas will increase more than 50 percent by 2020 and additional pipeline capacity is needed to deliver natural gas to end users. |
