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State regulators in 2007 gave Pacific Gas and Electric Co. the go-ahead to spend $5 million of ratepayer money to replace a 62-year-old section of the same pipeline that exploded last week in San Bruno. But the work never got done as scheduled in 2009, and this year the utility asked for another $5 million to do the same job by 2013, according to documents submitted by PG&E to the California Public Utility Commission as part of a general rate-hike request. While the cause of the pipeline explosion has yet to be determined, experts say that in general older lines...

Enbridge Inc on Saturday started digging up the pipeline that halted nearly a third of Canada's crude oil exports to the United States when it sprung a leak two days ago, but the company does not have an estimate on how long repairs will take. Enbridge said removal of the damaged pipe is complicated by utility lines and sewer pipes near its line, forcing workers to dig by hand or use high-pressure water to expose the oil conduit. It can't yet say when that will be completed or when shipments might resume. The leak was discovered around noon on Thursday...

Residents returned Sunday to the ruined hillsides of their suburban San Francisco neighborhood, three days after a natural gas pipeline exploded into a deadly fireball. A nearby segment of the line was due to be replaced, the utility responsible said, because it ran through a heavily urbanized area and the risk of failure was "unacceptably high." That 30-inch diameter pipe about two and a half miles north was installed in 1948, and was slated to be swapped for new 24-inch pipe. But investigators still don't know what caused the blast Thursday night, and even as dozens of people returned to...

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A federal official says Enbridge Energy Partners has until noon Tuesday to stop a leak from a Chicago-area oil pipeline. Sam Borries, on-scene coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Sunday that he misspoke earlier in saying Enbridge was ordered to stop the leak by Monday Excerpted per FR posting rules.

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S. J.J. Green, wtop.com WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before --...

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK -- The question was simple: “Would you like to die as a martyr?” The putative terrorist unhesitatingly replied yes—there was no greater way to die in Islam. The right answer put the man in the midst of a terrorist plot conceived as more devastating than the 9/11 attacks. He was soon making surveillance trips around John F. Kennedy International Airport—the “chicken farm,” as the planners dubbed their target -- and visiting the Trinidad compound of a radical Muslim group. On Saturday, the insider—a twice-convicted drug dealer—was revealed as a government informant whose surreptitious work undermined a plot...

Four men including former PNCR Member of Parliament Abdul Kadir were yesterday charged by United States law enforcement officials with allegedly conspiring to blow up the John F Kennedy International airport as well as tanks storing aviation fuel and underground fuel pipelines. Those charged with Kadir are former JFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imam from Trinidad; and Guyanese Abdel Nur. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad, while Defreitas was held in New York. Up to press time, however, Nur had not been apprehended and was thought to be still at large in Trinidad....

CLEBURNE, Texas - Officials say three people were killed and at least 10 people were missing and about a half-dozen more were injured when a gas line exploded Monday after it was struck by workers. Cleburne city manager Chester Nolen said three people are dead and at least 10 people were missing, Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA reported. Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator Jack Snow told The Associated Press about six people were transported to hospitals. He said officials believe a gas line was struck with a digging machine.

This week's oil spill from the trans-Alaska pipeline totaled about 5,000 barrels, making it the third-largest spill ever from the 800-mile pipeline. The new estimate of the spill size Friday compares with earlier estimates from the company that runs the pipeline that "up to several thousand" barrels spilled. That company, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., restarted the pipeline just before 5 p.m. Friday. Alyeska kept the pipeline shut down for more than three days after discovering the spill at Pump Station 9 near Delta Junction on Tuesday. The shutdown forced North Slope oil companies to slash production to 8 percent of...

The Alaska gas pipeline project will be vital for TransCanada Corp. in a decade, but the company’s incoming chief executive said he is more focused now on moving forward with $22-billion of projects that garner far fewer headlines. Russ Girling, a company veteran who takes over as CEO in July, said Thursday the multibillion-dollar Alaska proposal would help TransCanada keep its Alberta and Canadian main line gas systems running at capacity as conventional western Canadian production dwindles in the coming years. But Girling, 47, said in an interview he is still more focused on major investments that will come to...

Vilnius - Presidents Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania and Lech Kaczynski of Poland announced plans Thursday to build a new gas pipeline connecting their countries. "We have decided to seek that the construction of gas connection between Poland and Lithuania is declared a priority project of the European Union and that this project receives full European support," Grybauskaite said after a meeting between the two in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. The proposed pipeline would link the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the Polish gas supply and transmission system. Grybauskaite said the pipeline would ensure alternative supplies to the...

Everyone seems to agree there's room for only one major pipeline to move natural gas from Alaska's prodigious North Slope to North American markets. Now, a high-stakes showdown is taking shape over who will be in charge and what it will take to make the long-hoped-for project economical and a reality. Denali, a joint effort of ConocoPhillips and BP, formally proposed a $35 billion project Wednesday, with a pipeline stretching more than 1,700 miles and having delivery points to help meet gas needs in Alaska and Canada. Denali billed the project, which includes a gas treatment plant on the harsh...

Backers of a rival natural gas pipeline from Alaska to Alberta said the project will cost about $35 billion to build, documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) showed Wednesday. The Denali pipeline, which has the backing of North Slope producers BP and ConocoPhillips, is a competing proposal to Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. which also wants to build the line at a cost of $20 billion to $41 billion depending on the route. The TransCanada proposal includes the option for a spur line to Valdez which would bypass Alberta altogether. TransCanada is partners with ExxonMobil, the third major Alaskan...

/22/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- Construction on a new 2.7-mile pipeline to bolster ground refueling operations for the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing began March 17 at a non-disclosed base here. The $5.7 million project calls for the construction of an above-ground 8-inch carbon steel pipeline from the existing tanker truck offload facility to the bulk storage fuels area operated by the 380th Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight staff. Capt. Timothy Frank, from the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron who helped coordinate the project, said it was awarded with 2009 military construction supplemental funds. This pipeline improvement is the...

Legislative opponents of Trans-Canada Corp.'s state-backed natural gas pipeline project stripped much of the money Gov. Sean Parnell has sought for the state's role in pushing it forward from the budget adopted by the House Finance Committee on Tuesday. Finance Co-chair Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, acknowledged that it was a "substantial reduction" but said money could be provided later and was not an attack on the pipeline. Parnell said he would continue to seek the money that was cut. House Democrats who had backed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act under which Trans-Canada had won state support criticized the cuts as an...

At first glance, this looks good, right? Obama is finally realizing we need to develop our own resources, after loaning his buddy George Soros’ Brazilian oil company, Petrobas, ten billion dollars to drill offshore in Brazil. And maybe Obama is trying to steal Sarah Palin’s thunder here. ....Unfortunately, I believe you’d be wrong, and I believe my colleague is, as well. I don’t think Obama is trying to steal credit for this deal, I think he is trying to kill it. Frankly, when has Obama done anything to support energy development in America? On the contrary, Obama and his minions...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A dozen previously unknown shipwrecks, some of them believed to be up to 1,000 years old, were discovered in the Baltic Sea during a probe of the sea bed to prepare for the installation of a large gas pipeline, the Swedish National Heritage Board said Monday. "We have manage to identify 12 shipwrecks, and nine of them are considered to be fairly old," Peter Norman, a senior advisor with the heritage board, told AFP. "We think many of the ships are from the 17th and 18th centuries and we think some could even be from the Middle...

The National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami warning for Hawaii and a tsunami advisory for the West Coast of the United States.A NWS spokesman on CNN says it is estimated the tsunami waves will be 10 to 15 feet high when they hit Hawaii. The tsunmi waves could last up to six hours.Recent buoy reports of wave heights vary from 5 to 16 feet.Latest statement on Hawaii:BULLETIN TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 7 NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI 148 AM HST SAT FEB 27 2010 TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII...

The first dense phase rich natural gas from the Bakken is being transported to the Chicago hub via the Alliance Pipeline system. Alliance Pipeline recently completed construction of a new interconnect facility near Bantry, North Dakota which connects to Pecan Pipeline's 12", 76-mile Prairie Rose Pipeline. The new interconnect provides a much needed route to bring natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Bakken to market. While the Bakken is primarily an oil play, a significant amount of associated natural gas is also being produced. Natural gas is the cleanest burning and environmentally preferred fossil fuel, but without...

The discovery of huge new natural-gas fields across the contiguous U.S. is threatening Alaska's plans for a pipeline to export gas to the lower 48 states. Two rival consortiums, each backed by major energy companies, are competing to build the pipeline, designed to carry gas from Alaska's North Slope to continental markets. But even as the project is poised to get off the ground after decades of discussion, its viability is being called into question as energy companies have found huge new supplies of natural gas locked in dense rocks known as shale in places such as Texas, Louisiana and...