The pace of oil-and-natural-gas-related engineering and construction work has been nothing short of frenetic over the past several years, with global engineering and construction giants scrambling to find qualified professionals to staff a slew of multibillion-dollar projects. But the combined effects of falling energy prices, a slumping global economy and the lingering credit crisis are raising doubts about whether the world’s largest energy companies will continue to keep their capital investments flowing in 2009 and 2010. Photo: Nancy Groce, Smithsonian Institution Projects in Alberta’s oil-sands fields are being scaled back. Related Links: 2008 Top Global Sourcebook The international market for
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is conducting a Dec. 19 competitive lease sale for geothermal energy development on 61 parcels totaling nearly 200,000 acres in Utah, Oregon and Idaho. The event will be held in Salt Lake City to lease 47 parcels in western and southwestern Utah, totaling 146,339 acres; 11 parcels in Oregon, totaling 41,362 acres; and three parcels in south central Idaho, totaling 8,676 acres. Photo: Ormat Technologies Inc. Idaho’s first geothermal plant, Raft River, began operation this year. Utah has only two geothermal powerplants, totaling 47 MW, but it has 1,440 MW of developable potential, reports
Last year, the big news in the international powerplant design and construction sector was the unprecedented boom in coal-fired plant work in China, India and other fast-growing, “emerging” economies.
As large-scale wind farms continue to multiply across rural landscapes, building owners in denser locations are looking to save some green with pint-sized wind turbines. But the financial reward is not always the biggest factor weighing on owners’ minds, experts say. Photo: Cascade Engineering Michigan mill is generating public awareness. Concerns over energy prices and fossil fuels also have small wind blowing from all directions. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. is spending $25 million to put up rooftop turbines in New York, while a $11.2-million, low-income housing project designed by Helmut Jahn in Chicago has been generating rooftop power
The 78-year-old Detroit Refinery, owned by Findlay, Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC, currently processes 102,00 barrels per day of crude oil “into products such as gasoline, kerosene, asphalt and diesel fuel,” says Marathon spokesperson Christiane Fox.
Energy companies and builders are laying a foundation for the next round of nuclear powerplants in the U.S., making serious commitments of almost $500 million in recent months.
Construction of new powerplants and transmission lines is most likely to occur in markets where utilities can count on recouping the cost of their investments. Electric utility and construction executives also point to consistent government regulation as key to construction of energy projects. “Capital tends to be there” for investments that are made in markets where there are stable rules, said David Campbell, CEO of Dallas-based Luminant, the power-producing arm of the former TXU Corp., last month at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners annual meeting in New Orleans. “Certainty would be nice, but consistency allows us to come
The first of nine potential geothermal powerplants being developed by Reno, Nev.-based Gradient Resources will be built by McLean, Va.-based Science Applications International Corp.’s design-build subsidiary, Benham Constructors LLC123. Construction of the 60-MW powerplant at Gradient’s Patua site, near Fernley, Nev., will begin the second quarter of this year, with commercial operation expected in the third quarter of 2017. No contract value was given to the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the estimated $270-million project. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District already has contracted for a portion of the plant’s production. SAIC will use TAS Energy technology for the project.
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