Conference Alert & Call For Papers: PTC 2020

The organizers of the Pipeline Technology Conference (PTC 2020) (https://www.pipeline-conference.com/) scheduled for 30 March – 2 April, are asking for papers. Details appear below.

Now, I don’t know this, but I would expect the conference to include discussions on the use of drones. Drones are a double edged sword. On the one hand, they can improve inspection efficiency. On the other hand, they open up the possibility for bad actors to do bad things.

TIP: Google® pipeline drones

Two results of the search, illustrating both the one hand, and the other hand, appear below …

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Saudis say oil pipeline was attacked by drones, possibly from Yemen ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...pipeline...drones.../bb7917e6-7652-11e9-a7bf-c8a4...
3 days ago - Two pumping stations on a major Saudi oil pipeline were attacked by drones Tuesday, halting the flow of crude along it, Saudi Energy Minister ...

Drone Services For Oil & Gas Pipeline Inspections - Landpoint
www.landpoint.net/drone-services-for-oil-and-gas-pipeline-inspections/
Certified, accurate, and efficient drone data collection for methane detection on oil and gas pipelines

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Here are details on PTC 2020, taken from the PTC 2020 Web site …

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From 30 Mar. - 2 Apr. 2020 Europe’s leading conference and exhibition on pipeline systems, the Pipeline Technology Conference, will take place for the 15th time. ptc 2020 (https://www.pipeline-conference.com/) offers again opportunities for operators as well as technology and service providers to exchange latest onshore and offshore technologies and new developments supporting the energy strategies world-wide. More than 900 delegates and 90 exhibitors are expected to participate in the 15th ptc
List of Pipeline Operators
Delegations from almost 80 Pipeline System Operators from all over the World took part in the Pipeline Technology Conference 2019:
Botas, Turkey
BPA, United Kingdom
Cenit Transporte y Logística de Hidrocarburos, Colombia
Cepro a.s., Czech Republic
CONPET, Romania
Covestro, Germany
Danish Central Oil Stockholding Entity (FDO), Denmark
Danish Defense, Denmark
Dow Benelux, The Netherlands
Dow Olefinverbund, Germany
Ecopetrol, Colombia
Eni, Italy
Evonik, Germany
ExxonMobil Production Deutschland, Germany
Fluxys TENP, Belgium
GAIL, India
Gas Connect Austria, Austria
Gascade Gastransport, Germany
GASO, Latvija
GAZ-SYSTEM, Poland
Gazprom, Russia
GridServices, Czech Republic
Gomeltransneft Druzhba, Belarus
GRTgaz, France
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, India
Heide Refinery, Germany
IBN ZAHR, Saudi Arabia
INPEX, Japan
JANAF, Croatia
Kenya Pipeline Company, Kenya
KazTransOil, Kazakhstan
MERO, Czech Republic
MetroGAS, Argentina
MOL, Hungary
MVL Schwedt, Germany
National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago
Net4Gas, Czech Republic
Netze BW, Germany
Nord Stream 2, Switzerland
Nord Stream, Switzerland
Nord-West Oelleitung, Germany
Nova Transportadora do Sudeste - NTS, Brazil
Oléoduc du Jura Neuchâtelois, Switzerland
Oleoductos del Valle, Argentina
Ontras, Germany
Open Grid Europe, Germany
Partex Oil and Gas / ADNOC Gas Processing, U.A.E.
PEMEX, Mexico
Petrobras, Brazil
PDO, Oman
PTT Public Company Limited, Thailand
Qatargas, Qatar
Rhein-Main-Rohrleitungstransportgesellschaft, Germany
Saline Water Conversion Corp., Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia
Shell Nigeria, Nigeria
Shell UK, United Kingdom
SLOVNAFT, Slovakia
South Stream Transport, Netherlands
SPMR, France
Swissgas AG, Switzerland
TAL Group, Austria
TANAP, Turkey
Teiseki Pipeline Company, Japan
TenneT, Germany
TRANSCO, United Arab Emirates
Transportadora de Gas Internacional, Colombia
Transnafta Pancevo, Serbia
Transneft, Russia
Transpetrol, Slovakia
TRAPIL, France
Uktransnafta, Ukraine
Uniper, Germany
Vermilion Energy, Canada
YPF, Argentina
YPFB TRANSPORTE, Bolivia
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Teaming Up: ExxonMobil, NREL & NETL

A recent post from EnergyFactor by ExxonMobil alerted me to the following partnership …

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A partnership for scaling lower-emission innovations
EnergyFactor by ExxonMobil
Finding new energy solutions requires the skills and input from many scientists and engineers. That’s why ExxonMobil, in its search to develop lower-emission technologies, has created a new partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).
Considered the crown jewels of American research and home to groundbreaking innovations, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories represent a scientific network that spans the country. And ExxonMobil’s partnership will further breakthroughs in energy research, such as improved cellulosic biofuels or low-cost carbon capture technologies.
ExxonMobil is investing up to $100 million over the next 10 years into the partnership, which is among the largest of its kind.
Vijay Swarup, the company’s vice president of research and development, says the cooperation will help “open a full spectrum of innovation” propelled by collaboration between scientists from the National Laboratories and ExxonMobil.
These advancements will help address the dual challenge of providing the world with the affordable, scalable energy it needs while also mitigating the risks of climate change.
source: https://energyfactor.exxonmobil.com/news/doe-partnership/?utm_source=Exxon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b64f17b121-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_09_05_56&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_591a587b0d-b64f17b121-94938153
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TIP: Get some background. Google® "Vijay Swarup", the company’s vice president of research and development

One result … a very insightful Forbes article. Here are some excerpts …

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Over A Barrel: ExxonMobil Preps For The Low-Carbon Future
This story appears in the February 28, 2018 issue of Forbes.
In an exclusive interview, ExxonMobil's new CEO lays out his plan to supply a growing world with energy -- without destroying it in the process.
By Jamel Toppin, for Forbes.
Darren Woods strides down the long linoleum halls of ExxonMobil's research center in Clinton, New Jersey. Named Exxon's CEO in January 2017, the tall 53-year-old electrical engineer is comfortable here in this nerds' paradise, nestled safely on 750 bucolic acres, behind gates, armed guards and X-ray scanners. Exxon's legions of scientists, including the 300 based in New Jersey, are spending $1 billion a year trying to solve one of the greatest challenges of our time: how to reduce emissions while supplying ever more energy to a world Exxon expects to grow to 9 billion people by mid-century. Woods agreed to meet Forbes here for an exclusive interview, thousands of miles from Exxon's executive God Pod outside Dallas. The point is to stress that he gets it--carbon dioxide really does threaten to disrupt the global climate. "We understand the risk and that it needs to be addressed," Woods says. "We're sincere in that. We believe that."
But what does that really mean? After all, Exxon is not about to leave oil in the ground, as the anti-carbonistas would prefer. In fact, by 2025 the company intends to boost its U.S. oil production by more than 600,000 barrels a day and to get another 200,000 bpd from giant new discoveries off the coast of Guyana. Exxon's megatrend watchers figure we will need every drop as the global middle class doubles in size and energy demand grows by 25% by 2040. "Go to places experiencing energy poverty. It motivates you," Woods says. "You can't just walk away and say, 'Let's turn off the valve here.' "
But Exxon is also staring down a perfect storm of regulatory, social and shareholder pressure to clean up its act. What's needed, says Vijay Swarup, the Exxon exec who runs the Jersey research center, are innovations that meet the four criteria of being "affordable, scalable, reliable and sustainable."
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"It's an unselfish culture," Woods says. "The expectation is that the next guy comes in and does it better."
Doing it better means doubling down on green tech. Exxon has promised to spend $600 million on a venture with Craig Venter (who was the first to crack the human genome) and his Synthetic Genomics. The partnership started in 2009, and last summer they finally revealed a breakthrough. "We figured out the genetic pathway by which algae make lipids," Swarup says, referring to the fat cells that would be the building blocks of a sustainable algae oil. "Now we're going to do it at scale." But Woods, who spent the past decade running Exxon's refining and chemicals division, isn't interested in showing off a single batch of algae-derived jet fuel. What he wants is a 450,000-barrel-per-day Franken-algae refinery. And 20 years down the line--"aggressively patient" in Exxon-speak--the company just might get there.
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Despite these advances, it's easy to be cynical. Exxon has a long, sad track record of knowing the "right thing" to do--and then not doing it. In 1978 Exxon climate researcher James Black wrote a report titled "The Greenhouse Effect," warning that carbon emissions could spur a two-degree rise in global temperatures and suggesting that the world had ten years to figure out what to do. "It is premature to limit use of fossil fuels but they should not be encouraged," he wrote. Also in the 1970s, Exxon scientists invented the lithium-ion battery, but the company didn't bother to commercialize it, investing instead in coal and uranium. Then came the Exxon Valdez spill.
Read the full text at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2018/02/13/over-a-barrel-exxonmobil-preps-for-the-low-carbon-future/#2d98ae6a70d8
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Do Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well: Do Due Diligance

Due diligence is de rigueur in finance. You would not think of buying, selling, or partnering with another company without understanding whether they have the financial health to deliver on their promises.

What I propose here is to expand the concept of due diligence to a TECHNOLOGY.

By that I mean, if you are considering investing in a technology … like, say, submerged combustion … even before you consider a particular company, you might want to investigate the technology in a due diligence fashion.

Now, I can’t do the research for you (unless you hire me … contact me at research@jeansteinhardtconsulting.com).

But I can offer some tips to help you in your journey to do due diligence.

For example, if you happen to be interested in submerged combustion, you might want to explore Inproheat, one of the companies specializing in the technology.

TIP: Google® Inproheat

You might also want to explore the basic concept of submerged combustion.

TIP: Google® What Is Submerged Combustion

And, for that matter, you might want to read about the concept of due diligence.

TIP: Google® what is due diligence