Features

Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (“SCADA”) systems have matured over their 20 years of mainstream use in the oil and gas industry. This article will take a look at the current trends and SCADA’s future direction as perceived by the writer.

When one looks on a huge oil and gas installation like a refinery spread across many acres and representing millions of dollars on equipment and infrastructure investment, one does not see the raw crude oil injected into the refinery for the refining process. This is because the crude oil is transported through an underground pipeline. The pump station which pumps oil into the pipeline is also located far away from the refinery.

On Aug. 26, 2011, the Supreme Court of Texas issued its opinion in Texas Rice Land Partners Ltd. v. Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas LLC (No. 09-0901), which provides landowners yet another avenue by which to frustrate and delay common carriers’ acquisition of pipeline easements. Simply put, this decision makes life a little more difficult for companies trying to exercise the power of eminent domain.

P&GJ’s worldwide survey figures indicate that 118,623 miles of pipelines are planned and under construction. Of these, 88,976 represent projects in the planning and design phase; 29,647 miles reflect pipelines in various stages of construction.