New Oil Corporation＇s pipeline reconstruction base starts operation

The New Oil International Equipment Corporation finished construction of its pipeline repair base on Aug 31. The repair factory is expected to save nearly 60 million yuan （US$9.43 million） in manufacturing costs. Because the toughness and strength of pipelines decline with age, old pipelines cannot be reused. In 2014, New Oil International Corporation bought pipeline repair technology with a repair rate of up to 80 percent. ＂The reconstruction technology will reduce the costs of oil pipelines and extend their lifespan, thus protecting the environment, ＂ said Liu Zhi, president of the New Oil International Corporation. It costs about 110 yuan to manufacture one meter of new anticorrosion pipeline, which can be reduced to 70 yuan with the reconstruction technology. The average life span of ordinary anticorrosion pipeline is only three years, while the life expectancy of the metal ceramic composite pipeline is 15 years. The country has also launched favorable policies to encourage remanufactured products. Remanufacturing scrapped pipelines consumes 93 percent less energy than new pipelines.

Chinese tankers to carry US shale gas to Europe

Two gas tankers built by the Sinopacific Offshore and Engineering will ship shale gas to Europe from the United States. The ships will join an eventual eight- strong fleet of tankers operated by Swiss-headquartered petrochemical manufacturer Ineos Group Ltd, which will carry 800,000 tons of shale gas annually from the US tO its European manufacturing plants. Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos＇ founder and chairman, said the US$1 billion project will help revolutionize the European chemicals industry by reducing both feedstock and energy costs. ＂Bringing US shale gas to Europe is a huge undertaking, involving Ineos experts from across the globe. To see these two ships finally completed here in China means that this vast project will soon be fully operational.＂ Simon Liang, Sinopacific Offshore and Engineering＇s chairman and CEO, said more than 2,000 people had been involved in the building of the two ＂Dragon Class＂ ships, each of which required about one-million man hours of work. Each ship will be the length of two soccer pitches and be able to carry over 27,500 cubic meters of liquefied gas. The two ships will begin their maiden voyage soon.

Futer Energy starts coal-oil project in Yulin

Amid the global fall in crude oil prices and a supply glut, a coal-oil project with an investment of 16.4 billion yuan （US$2.58 billion） started production on Friday in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, with experts expressing concerns about the economic efficiency of such industries. Shaanxi Futer Energy and Chemicals Co., Ltd., controlled by Yankuang Group, a State-owned coal producer headquartered in Yanzhou, Shandong Province, is the owner of the project which makes oil from coal. The first phase of the project has an annual capacity of 1.1 million metric tons. The company plans to have a capacity of 10.1 million tons when the second phase is complete, but no clear timetable has been charted yet. Responding to concerns about the profitability of the coal-oil project due to low crude prices, the company said though the coal chemical investments are high, the lower coal prices make it viable.