Report: Total length of planned oil and gas transmission pipelines to increase by 12.9%

The total length of oil and gas pipelines planned to be built globally is set to increase from 1.8 million kilometres in November 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 provides details of the length and expenditure on planned oil and gas transmission pipelines announced in the first half of 2016 across the globe.

Continent-wise, North America has the longest planned pipeline length to be built and highest capex planned to be spent in the world over the next four years. A total of 68,586km of transmission pipeline length is estimated to be constructed in the region by 2020, with a capex of $171.4bn.

More than half of the planned transmission pipeline length to be built by 2020 will be executed in the US, India, Russia, Canada and Iran, with a total capex of $312bn.

The longest of the planned pipelines will be 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.

Gazprom will be the leading company with the most pipeline length planned by 2020, with a length of 14,751km and a capex of $63.2bn.

Other companies investing in planned pipeline projects include TransCanada Corporation and IGI Poseidon, with a combined capex of $53.3bn.