Underground Construction - January 2020 - 20

Global Pipeline Construction Outlook 2020
bpd in late 2020 after years of delay and
relentless opposition by environmental and
indigenous groups.

ASIA-PACIFIC
Under Construction: 15,737
Planned: 12,697
Total: 28,434
China continues to dominate the energy demand and discussion in Asia as it
restructures its state-owned energy assets
and focus on the development of a natural
gas-centric future.
It reached two important milestones in
its development of natural gas supply and
infrastructure development, starting with
the start of ﬂows from the Power of Siberia
pipeline, which now transports natural gas
more than 1,800 miles (3,000 km) from
Russia's Chayandinskoye and Kovytka ﬁelds
in eastern Siberia. The start of gas ﬂows via
the landmark pipeline reﬂects Moscow's
attempts to shift its attention east from
Europe, attempting to mitigate some eﬀects
from Western ﬁnancial sanctions after its
2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
Flows via the pipeline are expected to
gradually rise to 38 Bcm per year in 2025,
possibly making China Russia's second-largest gas customer after Germany,
which bought 58.50 Bcm of gas from
Russia last year.
Also last month, China's state-owned
energy businesses underwent their biggest
shuﬄe in two decades as it created a new
centrally administered, state-owned pipeline company that combines all pipeline
assets of the top three state-owned energy
9,298

32,168

17,165

giants: China National Petroleum Corp.,
China Petrochemical Corp., and China
National Oﬀshore Oil Corp.
The change is designed to open access to
China's pipeline infrastructure to private
and foreign energy producers to spur oil
and gas exploration. The open pipeline
network will allow companies to focus on
exploration without any additional costs to
move the fuel to market.
China is the world's second-largest oil
consumer and third-largest natural gas
user, but its 82,600-mile oil and gas pipeline
network is less than one-ﬁfth the size of
the system in the United States, the world's
biggest oil and gas consumer. It plans to dramatically increase the breadth of its pipeline
transmission and distribution networks.
Asia is expected to see the largest
increase in total capital expenditure for
2019-2023 of any region compared with
the previous ﬁve years, according to
Westwood. Despite global trade disputes
and a cooling Chinese economy that may
soften predicted demand for natural gas
imports, Westwood projects a 75 percent
increase in energy infrastructure investment during the period.
China, of course, isn't the only source of
gas import demand, with strong LNG imports from Japan, as well as less-developed
economies that are attempting to build
infrastructure for gas.
In India, which is rapidly transforming
to a natural gas-ﬁred economy, Eni plans
to add to growing supply in 2021 when it
begins output from its oﬀshore Merakes
project, which includes construction of
subsea systems and pipelines to transport

19,112
15,619

5,211

28,434

Under Construction: 47,891
Planned: 79,116
Total Miles: 127,007

Source: Gulf Energy Information's Energy Web Atlas

20

JANUARY 2020 | UConOnline.com

production to the Jankirk ﬂoating production unit about 22 miles away for shipment
through existing systems.
Neighboring Pakistan also plans to oﬀer
dozens of gas ﬁeld concessions and deregulate its pipeline system in the coming years
to address a fuel shortage after domestic
gas output plateaued to 1.46 Tcf in 201718 from 1.51 Tcf in 2012-13.

RUSSIA & CIS
Under Construction: 11,385
Planned: 7,727
Total: 19,112
For all of the U.S. sanction threats and
European handwringing about overdependence on Russian piped gas, Gazprom
has proceeded virtually unabated with its
development of massive pipeline projects
that will ultimately bring signiﬁcant new
supplies to the continent via the Balkan
and Black seas.
In October, Gazprom began ﬁlling the
ﬁrst of Turkstream's two parallel pipelines
that connect large gas reserves in Russia to
the Turkish gas transportation network,
bypassing Ukraine. It planned to launch
the ﬁrst part of the pipeline, with annual
capacity of 15.75 Bcm, by the start of the
year. Bulgaria is expected to complete an
extension of TurkStream, creating a path
directly to Europe, with potential completion as early as this year. The second
part of the twin-line also has a capacity of
15.75 Bcm/year.
Also, in October, Denmark's energy
agency approved the construction of
Gazprom's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
project in Danish waters, removing the
last major hurdle for the Russian-led gas
project. Denmark was the last of several
countries to approve the project that
divided the European Union and drew the
ire of the United States, which continues
to pursue sanctions. The twin Nord Stream
2 will be capable of carrying 55 Bcf/year
of natural gas across the Baltic Sea from
Russia to Germany.
Despite its continuing strides in
expanding natural gas deliveries to
Europe, Russian crude oil exports fell to an
11-month low mid-year due to oil contamination of the Druzhba Pipeline, which
delivers oil to Germany, Hungary, Poland
and Slovakia.
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Underground Construction - January 2020

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