TPT July 2014

Global Marketplace

‘V intage ’ pipes of iron or bare steel There are more than 1.2 million miles of gas main pipes in the United States. Last year, gas distributors nationwide reported an average of 12 leaks per 100 miles of those pipes. As reported in the Times , communities across the country have been struggling to replace thousands of miles of these old, metal pipes with pipes made of plastic or specially coated steel that are less prone to leakage. New York City presents an especially daunting challenge. Nearly half of the gas mains operated by Con Edison and National Grid were installed before 1940, according to federal records consulted by the Times . More than half of these are made of cast iron, wrought iron or unprotected steel – materials that are vulnerable to corrosion and cracking, especially in cold weather. Con Edison estimates that replacement of all of the old mains in its network right now would cost as much as $10 billion. Despite the high cost and logistical hurdles, alarmed regulators at the state’s Public Service Commission have ordered the company to significantly step up its replacement schedule, from 50 miles of pipe a year to 70 by 2016, in the city and in Westchester. Even at that rate, according to the Times analysis it would still take nearly three decades for the utility to finish swapping out what regulators have identified as the most leak-prone pipes. Federal records show the New York City utilities have been able to cut into their leak numbers as they have replaced mains. National Grid, in particular, has made improvements. Its rate of leaks per 100 miles of gas mains still ranks among the highest in the country, but it is significantly better than Con Edison’s.

statutory monitoring authority that was abolished in May 2012. Its revival has stalled in the Australian Senate. › Chevron Australia managing director Roy Krzywosinski told Mr Massola that his company, which is lead operator in the A$54 billion Gorgon LNG project and A$29 billion Wheatstone LNG projects in Western Australia, wants structural changes to industrial relations laws. “All of us – industry, government, buyers, sellers and unions – have a shared mutual interest [in reform],” he told Mr Massola. “We need bipartisan support now to address Australia’s high-cost environment to secure its next wave of LNG investment.” › The APPEA has estimated the cost to Australian companies of delivering LNG to Japan – their biggest market – at up to 30 per cent higher than for rival producers in Canada and Mozambique. When natural gas leaking from New York’s complex and corroded infrastructure finds an ignition source, results can be deadly “It is a danger hidden beneath the streets of New York City, unseen and rarely noticed: 6,302 miles of pipes transporting natural gas.” (“Beneath Cities, a Decaying Tangle of Gas Pipes,” the New York Times , 23 March) Manhattan-based Consolidated Edison, one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the US, owns the pipes that serviced two buildings in East Harlem levelled by an

explosion in March, killing eight people. A Times analysis of records collected by the federal Department of Transportation for 2012 shows that Con Ed had the highest rate of leaks in the country among natural gas operators whose networks totalled at least 100 miles. According to the Times reporters Patrick McGeehan, Russ Buettner and David W Chen, leaks like the one believed to have led to the explosion in East Harlem are “startlingly common.” Federal records show that they number in the thousands every year. The chief culprit, say experts, is the perilous state of New York City’s underground network, one of the oldest in the country. The Times team detailed “a glaring example of America’s crumbling infrastructure.” In 2012 alone, Con Edison and National Grid, the other distributor of natural gas in New York, reported 9,906 leaks in their combined systems, which serve the city and suburban Westchester County. More than half were considered hazardous, federal records show.

New York has experienced problems with its aging underground pipe system

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J uly 2014