Underground Construction - November 2017 - 2

UCF

EDITOR'S LOG The Stroke Of A Pen

By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief

ucononline.com

For the energy pipeline construction industry, 2015 and 2016
were, to say the least, disappointing in many ways for both contractors and energy companies.
Obviously, with the price of oil
and natural gas remaining largely
depressed in recent years, many
pipeline projects have been placed
on hold, waiting for improved
overall industry economic conditions, price points and stability.
But perhaps of equal importance,
improved business conditions
have been sorely needed, as well.
Pipeline contractors, along with
subcontractors such as horizontal
directional drilling companies, suffered through limited job opportunities in 2015 and 2016.
It is no secret that the policies of
former President Barrack Obama
created significant barriers to anything related to carbon. Those policies boldly halted pipeline projects
and subtly provided important
delays and aid that subsequently
allowed the birth of a broad and
organized radical, anti-pipeline
movement. As you'll recall, that
rise of negative and obstructionist activism, along with President
Obama's stalling tactics, stifled the
Keystone Pipeline.
By the time Obama ultimately
rejected Keystone, the anti-pipeline movement was entrenched,
organized and confident that it
could take on Big Oil and win.
Next on its target list was the Dakota Access Pipeline. The activists
jumped in at the last minute, just
as the construction of DAPL was
wrapping up, to wage another war
against pipelines and Big Oil &
Gas. This time, their strategy was
to manipulate an Indian tribe
into a very public war against
DAPL.
When the battle began, DAPL
was essentially only a directional drill away from completion.
Using the weapons of "ensuring
safe drinking water" along with
"preventing cultural defilement,"
hundreds of die-hards - and a few
Native Americans - started a near-

...by the end of 2017, a
much clearer picture has
emerged: less onerous
regulations, slowly
improving oil prices and
a lower break-even price
for shale.
by campground as a permanent
base for what became a steady diet
of "newsworthy" staged protests.
But the shocking election in
November 2016 changed everything for pipelines. Not only did
President Trump's new policies
effectively thwart the anti-DAPL
lawsuits, but it cleared out the
protest camp and allowed the
pipeline to be completed. The
anti-pipeline confederation was
forced to regroup and is still trying
to stop the actual flow of oil with
nuisance lawsuits.
Trump also rescinded the Keystone denial. However, it is still
not known if TransCanada will
continue with the project after
this long delay and reversal of oil
fortunes from when the pipeline
was originally to be built.
Trump has steadily been dismantling not only anti-pipeline
executive orders, rules and regulations, but other business inhibitors, as well. The unpredictability
of President Trump, combined
with a slumping energy market,
had underground infrastructure
companies nervous about their
future. However, by the end of
2017, a much clearer picture has
emerged: less onerous regulations,
slowly improving oil prices and a
lower break-even price for shale.
Those improved conditions put
incentives and motivation back
into the energy market. Pipeline
projects that were shelved in 2014
were reinvigorated for 2017. Further, pending legislation could add
pressure to various agencies to
approve/disapprove pipelines in a

timely fashion. The clear message
is that politically motivated delaying tactics, used with much success
over the past several years, will no
longer be tolerated.
The positive market movement
was met with contempt and chaos
by the anti-pipeline movement.
Like a rabid dog, the extremist
organizations have still lashed out
and attacked major pipelines, targeting them with the typical tactics
of nuisance lawsuits, organizing
locals and whipping them into a
frenzy against the evil pipelines.
While that strategy has achieved
minor success, it appears that
unless there are legitimate issues,
those construction projects will
eventually move forward - but not
without pipeline companies spending an inordinate amount of time
and effort in defense.
The anti-groups , on the other
hand, have a finite amount of
resources they can bring to bear.
Targeting a small number of major
pipelines is all they can afford to
do at this time. But for every major
pipeline project being constructed or on the drawing board, there
are many more small-to-moderate pipeline projects in the queue
with a green light to proceed. Once
these pipelines pass their due
diligence requirements, work proceeds. Much of the excessive, cumbersome and unnecessary bureaucratic nonsense has evaporated.
With the extreme need to expand
the pipeline grid, the result is that
new construction and HDD are
having a good year in 2017, with
2018 looking even better.
Homerun projects are always
chased by contractors, but the
small-to-medium projects are the
industry's bread and butter - and
still represent high profit potential. In 2017 and going forward,
smiles have returned to the faces
of pipeline contractors, engineers
and owners.

Underground Construction November 2017

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Underground Construction - November 2017

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