Transporting oil and gas the world’s longest pipelines
Honestly, the pipelines that carry oil and gas around the world are amazing examples of human engineering. Their sheer length and size are breathtaking, and building them can take years, if not decades. Where are the longest pipelines in the world located, and how far along are they in their expansion?
Longest pipelines in the world: West-East Gas Pipeline for Natural Gas: PetroChina, which owns 72.26 percent of PetroChina Pipelines, operates the 8,707-kilometer West-East Gas Pipeline. It will be the longest Brazil Crude Oil Refinery Market the world when it is finished. It has eight branches and a main trunkline (phase I). Phase I spans 4,000 kilometers and connects China’s largest city, Shanghai, to the gas fields in the Tarim Basin in Xianjing. The gas is used to make electricity in the Yangtze River Delta, and the pipeline goes through at least 66 cities in ten provinces.
The pipeline was expanded in 2007 to hold 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas, up from its original capacity of 12 billion cubic meters per year. To handle the extra gas, ten brand-new gas compressor stations were constructed. The project was estimated to cost $5.7 billion all together.
The pipeline’s phases II and III both originate in the primary pipeline and spread outward from Xianjing in a variety of different directions. The second phase pipeline has a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year and costs $20 billion, while phase III has a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year.
Brazil, GASUN: The 4,989-kilometer National Unification Gas Pipeline (GASUN) will link the Gasbol pipeline in Bolivia to the states of the northern Amazon and the northeast of Brazil. The first section of the pipeline runs 2,260 kilometers from Mato Grosso do Sul in central Brazil to the state of Maranho, passing through the capital, Brasilia. It has a total length of almost 5,000 kilometers. The project was supposed to be finished in 2007 when construction began in 2006.
To know about the assumptions considered for the study, Download for Free Sample Report
The Gasbol pipeline, which spans 3,150 kilometers over two pipelines and has a maximum capacity of 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas, connects Bolivia’s reserves in the Rio Grande region to Porto Alegre on Brazil’s southeast coast. At a cost of $2.48 billion, the project is expected to be finished in 2026.
Five Brazilian businesses expressed interest in purchasing 10 million cubic meters of gas daily beginning in 2020 in August.
In a government newsletter, Bolivia’s Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy, Luis Sanchez, stated: We are negotiating new markets to improve prices and conditions for the Bolivian government and boost the country’s revenue.
The 4,196-kilometer Yamal-Europe pipeline runs through Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Slovakia to connect the natural gas reserves of Western Siberia in Russia to Austria. Yamal II takes a different route from Belarus to Austria via Poland.
Yamal-Europe is regarded as the world’s widest pipeline, able to transport 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas through 14 compressor stations. Its diameter is 142 centimeters. The national energy conglomerate Gazprom owns the majority of the pipeline that traverses Russia.
EuRoPol Gaz, a joint venture between Polish PGNiG and Gazprom with each holding a 48% stake, runs Yamal II through Poland. The Polish Gas-Trading business owns the remaining 4%.
In the past ten years, there have been plans to construct a second pipeline leg, with Russia investing approximately $5 billion in 2013. The second leg could be finished as early as next year as a result of this.
Pipeline across the Sahara: 4,127 km The Trans-Saharan pipeline is still in the planning stages and is intended to connect the Hassi R’Mel gas fields in northern Algeria with gas-rich lands offshore and onshore in Nigeria. It then splits into the three distinct pipelines that are going to the European market.
The pipeline will transport 30 billion cubic meters of gas across the Sahara desert when it is completed. Pipeline construction and gas gathering stations are expected to cost approximately $13 billion in total.
However, a Guardian insider told the news agency in March: Investors are aware that insecurity in the Niger Delta makes it difficult for Nigeria to fulfill its gas obligations to neighboring African nations via the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company.
“How can we meet the demand for gas in Europe through the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline if we are unable to deliver gas to Ghana and Togo? Ghana has begun to look for other sources of its gas, which is bad news for the country and investors in the pipeline project.
Longest pipelines in the world: Crude oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean: 4,857 kilometers The 4,857 kilometers-long Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline (ESPOOP) is a project managed by the Russian oil transportation company Transneft. The pipeline, which will connect Taishet to Kozmino on the eastern Siberian coast via two pipelines connected at Skovorodino, close to the northern Chinese border, began construction in 2006 near the town of Taishet in the Irkutsk oblast in central Siberia.
In exchange for a loan of $25 billion to Transneft and Rosneft for the development of the pipeline and oilfield, Russia and China agreed in 2009 to construct a separate branch of the pipeline that would be able to supply China with 15 million tonnes of oil, or 300,000 barrels, per day, until 2029. In January 2011, Russian oil exports to China began. The pipeline is about 992 kilometers long and connects Skovorodino to Daqing.
According to the BBC, Gazprom plans to construct a new 3,000-kilometer pipeline that will connect Eastern Siberia to the Chinese border states. As of 2018, Russia is China’s largest oil supplier.
Pipeline of Druzhba: 4,000 kilometers The Druzhba pipeline is said to be one of the longest oil pipelines in the world at the moment. Druzhba includes twenty pumping stations on its route from Almetyevsk in central Russia to Schwedt in northern Germany. The nearly 730,000 t of pipe used in the construction of the pipeline cost approximately $5.92 million. It can hold 1.2–1.4 million barrels of oil per day at its maximum capacity, which is currently being increased in the section between Belarus and Poland.
According to Reuters, Rosneft, a gas company based in Russia, is said to be interested in constructing a pipeline branch from the Druzhba pipeline to supply additional oil refineries in Germany. Rosneft-Germany executive director Brian Chesterman told Kommersant, a Russian national newspaper, that the project could take three to five years to complete.
However, analysts at VTB Capital told Reuters: We believe it will be some time before any potential construction begins because the project may require approval from European regulators.
Pipeline Keystone: 3,456 km The Keystone Pipeline transports up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the Keystone Hardisty terminal in Alberta, Canada, to the Patoka Oil Terminal Hub in Illinois, USA.
Two additional phases have been completed since its construction, effectively connecting Alberta to Houston, Texas, via connecting points in Steele City, Nebraska, and Cushing, Oklahoma.
Keystone XL, the fourth phase, was designed to take a shorter route through Morgan, Montana to connect Albert and Steele City. However, protests by environmental groups and the US Environmental Protection Agency over the delicate terrain and increased risk of oil spills have resulted in multiple delays during this phase.
Because of these worries, the Obama administration put off building Keystone XL until 2015. On November 5, 2015, during an address to the nation, Obama stated: When it comes to taking serious steps to combat climate change, America is now the global leader. Furthermore, approving this project would have undermined that global leadership, to be honest.
However, President Trump has since revived the project by issuing an executive order to authorize the Keystone XL project in January of this year. In November of 2017, the pipeline in South Dakota let out 210,000 gallons of oil.
China-Kazakhstan Pipeline: 2,798 kilometers of the oil pipeline between Kazakhstan and China connect Atyrau in the Kazakh Caspian Sea to Xianjing in central China. It is regarded as China’s first direct oil import pipeline from central Asia, transporting 20 million tonnes or 142 million barrels annually.
The pipeline is supplied by the oil fields in the Aktobe region, Kazakhstan’s Kumkol field, and the Caspian Sea’s offshore Kashagan field. It also transports oil to the Atasu oil terminal in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan from western Siberia in Russia.
The Trans-Caspian pipeline will allow for increased exports to Europe as a result of the recent maritime sovereignty decision made by five Caspian Sea states. This decision has made it possible to explore more than 20 billion barrels of oil and 6.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in the region.