Report: North America to lead globally in planned gas pipeline length by 2020

The total length of worldwide oil and gas transmission pipelines is projected to increase from 1.8 million kilometres in November 2016 to 2.1 million kilometres by 2020, according to a report by GlobalData.

Titled ‘H2 2016 Global Length and Capital Expenditure Outlook for Oil and Gas Pipelines – Natural Gas Pipelines Take Lead in New Project Announcements’, the report forecasts North America to have the longest planned pipeline length at 68,586km and a capex spending of $171.4bn by 2020.

The report also adds that more than half of the global planned pipeline length will be built in the US, India, Russia, Canada and Iran by 2020, with the combined five countries expected to spend a total of $312bn on the pipeline.

The longest planned pipeline projects by 2020 include the Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon gas pipeline (6,000km), the West-East Gas III gas pipeline in China (5,220km) and the Energy East gas pipeline (4,600km) in Canada.

A total of 17 new natural gas pipelines were announced in the second half of 2016 compared to those announced in the previous report published in May 2016. The new pipelines include East Mediterranean (1,900km), Barauni-Guwahati-Agartala (1,300km) and South Sumatra (245km). A new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline known as Falcon Ethane System was also announced.

Additionally, eight new petroleum product pipelines were announced, including the Kandla-Gorakhpur (1,987km) and Guwahati-Lumding-Silchar-Imphal (610km) pipelines in India.

New crude oil pipelines announced since the previous report included the Paradip-Numaligarh, Haoud El Hamra-Bejaia II, Sibkrayevskoye and Savage DAPL Connector.

In terms of companies, Gazprom will lead globally by 2020 in terms of the most pipeline length planned (14,751km) and capex spending ($63.2bn). TransCanada Corporation and IGI Poseidon are also projected to have heavy capex spending, totalling $53.3bn.