Structural and regulatory reform in Turkey: Lessons form public utilities

Turkey is one of the countries that recently initiated regulatory reform in public utilities. Although Turkey tried to introduce competition to many industries through a liberalization movement that started in the 1980s, utilities remained as monopolies until the early 2000s. In the beginning of the 2000s, reforms restructured the utilities through deregulation and competition policies and established independent regulatory agencies. Whereas the reforms have been successful in some aspects, they remain insufficient in others. This paper anecdotally investigates the effects of (de)regulation on selected public utility industries and analyzes the pros and cons of the reform process. Also, it presents a comparative analysis to better understand the current institutional and governmental issues in the reform process. The findings suggest that the recently changing stance of government towards the (de)regulatory process could thwart the success of reform.     

Setting limits and targets for greenhouse gas emissions at local level:a case study based on the District of Winchester,UK

We introduce climate change and those aspects of global warming that are required to understand the rationale behind the setting of emissions targets. We then review recent evidence that indicates that immediate and substantial action needs to be taken globally to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to keep its atmospheric concentration at a ‘safe’ level. This limit implies a range of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions budgets for the UK from now until 2050. We adopt a figure at the low end of the range to derive a comparable budget for Winchester, UK. Given Winchester's consumption emissions of 1.52 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2004, we calculate an emissions pathway until 2050 consistent with this budget. This suggests annual reductions of 6.7% are required. Our methodology can be applied to other local authority areas provided relevant statistics are available.     

Policy and legal frameworks for underground natural gas storage in Iran

Underground natural gas storage is a process with operational and economic benefits that balances a variable demand market with a constant energy supply. It increases gas service reliability at peak periods and enables the suppliers to meet gas demands. Thus, the sufficiency and responsiveness of existing policy and legal framework for developing underground gas storage to provide reliability to industry players require deep analysis.Iranian policymakers set out policies regarding gas storage as an economic decision to manage prospective risks associated with the gas market. However, comprehensive and integrated policies and strategic plans for underground gas storage are not set out to the required extent. Therefore, enacting specific, comprehensive, and integrated laws and regulations is imperative to consider the unique characteristics of underground gas storage. Enabling third-party access to gas storage facilities as a sectoral regulatory mechanism could guarantee competition. In addition, the role of constructive contractual arrangements for developing underground gas storage, founded on the sector's laws and regulations, as a complementary tool to attract investment should not be overlooked. The transfer of ownership of gas and facilities under such contractual arrangements could facilitate the process, incentivizing investment.     

油气矿山遥感监测方法初探——以鄂尔多斯盆地为例

随着对地质规律认识的不断提高,非常规油气勘查开采技术的不断创新,我国页岩气、煤层气等非常规油气资源新增地质储量取得突破性进展。但由于种种原因,对油气矿山(石油、天然气、煤层气、页岩气)关注力度不够,还没有开展区域性遥感监测研究。文章采用2018年高辨率遥感数据,运用人机交互解译的技术方法,建立了油气矿山遥感解译标志,开展了油气矿山遥感监测方法探索,并在鄂尔多斯盆地完成了油气矿山开发状况遥感监测,证明了遥感监测方法切实可行。     

Inspection and maintenance of oil & gas pipelines: a review of policies

Oil and gas (O&G) pipelines are expensive assets that cross through both the ecologically sensitive and densely populated urban areas. The pipeline failure may have potentially significant consequences for both the natural and human environments. In order to maintain the integrity of O&G pipelines, inspection and maintenance processes should be governed by efficient policies. The objective of this paper is to conduct a state-of-the-art review of maintenance policies of O&G pipelines to investigate their advantages, limitations, and associated implementation issues. Maintenance policies can be categorised into corrective, preventive, predictive and proactive. Corrective maintenance policies (1940s) were based on the ‘repair when broke’ philosophy. Economic considerations shifted practice towards preventive maintenance (1970s to 1990s); later with improved inspection techniques and environmental regulations, predictive and proactive or risk-based maintenance (RBM) policies were developed. This review explicates different methodologies for RBM and related issues, e.g. uncertainties and variability, conservative assumptions, etc. Uncertainties associated with investigation and prediction of defects have been more frequently reported in the literature so far. Moreover, existing studies primarily focused on reducing the likelihood and cost of failure, whereas consideration of environmental factors in overall risk has been a relatively less addressed issue.     

Automatic on-line monitoring of atmospheric volatile organic compounds: gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection as complementary systems

Traditionally air quality networks have been carrying out the continuous, on-line measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in ambient air with GC-FID. In this paper some identification and coelution problems observed while using this technique in long-term measurement campaigns are described. In order to solve these problems a GC-MS was set up and operated simultaneously with a GC-FID for C₂-C₁₁ VOCs measurement.There are few on-line, unattended, long term measurements of atmospheric VOCs performed with GC-MS. In this work such a system has been optimized for that purpose, achieving good repeatability, linearity, and detection limits of the order of the GC-FID ones, even smaller in some cases. VOC quantification has been made by using response factors, which is not frequent in on-line GC-MS. That way, the identification and coelution problems detected in the GC-FID, which may led to reporting erroneous data, could be corrected.The combination of GC-FID and GC-MS as complementary techniques for the measurement of speciated VOCs in ambient air at sub-ppbv levels is proposed. Some results of the measurements are presented, including concentration values for some compounds not found until now on public ambient air VOC databases, which were identified and quantified combining both techniques. Results may also help to correct previously published VOC data with wrongly identified compounds by reprocessing raw chromatographic data.     

Analysis of coupled gas flow and deformation process with desorption and Klinkenberg effects in coal seams

Coupled gas flow and solid deformation in porous media has received considerable attention because of its importance in pneumatic test analysis, contaminant transport, and gas outbursts during coal mining. Gas flow in porous media is quite different from liquid flow due to the large gas compressibility and pressure-dependent effective permeability. The dependence of gas pressure and gas desorption on gas permeability has a significant effect on gas flow, but has been ignored in most previous studies. Moreover, solid deformation has a direct impact on the porosity, which also leads to desorption or sorption of methane in the coal seam. In this study, a coupled mathematical model for solid deformation and gas flow is proposed and is implemented using a finite element method. The numerical code is used to solve the gas flow equation with Klinkenberg effect, and is validated by comparison with available analytical solutions. Then, it is used to simulate the coupled process during gas migration in a deformable coal seam. The numerical results indicate that the desorption and Klinkenberg effects and mechanical process effect make a significant contribution to gas flow in the coal seam. Without considering the desorption and Klinkenberg effects and the coupling action of mechanical process, the gas pressure in the coal seam would be underestimated.     

基于机器学习方法的有毒有害气体监测系统设计

针对近年来石油化工厂区、危险化学品存放港口火灾事故多发,消防员在灭火救援过程中多有人员伤亡的现状,提出一种专用于消防救援现场的有毒有害气体监测系统,阐述了系统的构成、工作原理,建立了现场有毒有害气体监测区域危险性和消防员现场作业危险性权值模型。应用机器学习方法对数据模型进行训练,在灭火救援现场为指挥员调度指挥提供科学的辅助决策支撑,有利于保障现场参战消防员的生命安全。     

钢铁企业副产煤气定价模式探讨

钢铁企业副产煤气的合理定价十分重要,它直接影响项目的经济效益,影响用气和供气企业的公平交易。副产煤气定价有比价法和机会成本法两种模式,其中,机会成本法定价较为公允,建议钢铁企业副产煤气定价采用以发电利润为基准的机会成本法来确定副产煤气的价格。     

Managing knowledge: lessons from the oil and gas sector

Knowledge management (KM) is of increasing interest to a number of leading UK construction organizations. Companies are keen to find out what other organizations are doing both within the construction and other industry sectors. There are important lessons to be learned from Canadian oil and gas organizations on how they manage their knowledge. A case study is used to explore the KM activities of eight leading organizations and investigate the opportunities for construction organizations to adopt some of their ideas. Three areas are covered: KM strategy and implementation, people aspects of KM and metrics for KM performance. There are several potential lessons for UK organizations: the need for KM to be driven by senior management if it is to have any notable success; the use of people‐centred techniques for sharing tacit knowledge and IT tools for sharing explicit knowledge; the importance of selling solutions to project teams to obtain employee support for KM; peer recognition has a more sustainable impact than financial reward; and KM measurement should be considered as a way of improving its impact, rather than justifying expenditure.     

北斗卫星微位移监测系统在油气管道地质灾害监测预警中的应用

油气管道铺设线路所经区域地形条件复杂,受到地质灾害的影响较大,为了避免地质灾害对管道造成破坏,提高油气管道运输的安全性,采用北斗卫星微位移监测模块对管道桩号为JG7410的滑坡地质灾害点进行实时监测。该点处管道穿坡而过,边坡完整性和植被覆盖遭到破坏,存在滑坡风险。我们将监测站布设于管道上方切坡处,基准站布设于距离监测站1km处,监测数据通过基准站进行校正、解算处理后,精度可达毫米级。此外,研究将获取的位移数据与降雨数据进行对比,结果表明:该滑坡体的沉降量与沉降速率主要受降雨因素影响,且沉降速率的加速与汛期有关。这说明北斗微位移监测模块在滑坡位移监测过程中应用前景很好,在很大程度上可以避免重大滑坡事故的发生,保证了油气管道完整性和安全性。     

城市下水道可燃有毒气体的监测方法

介绍了调查城市下水道内可燃有毒气体的泄漏来源、主要成分及浓度的方法,为紧急排除下水道危险气体泄漏引发的爆炸、人员中毒等事故提供了科学有效的依据。     

Shale gas production in China: A regional analysis of subsidies and suggestions for policy

With the increasing dependence on imported natural gas, China has to develop unconventional natural gas resources, such as shale gas. However, the increasing shale gas production has brought about more pressure for governmental subsidies. We analyzed whether shale gas companies need subsidies by calculating the economic value of shale gas development in China from the perspective of enterprises, and estimated the maximum subsidy quota for shale gas development by measuring its economic, environmental, and social benefits from the country's perspective. Based on the principle of beneficiaries should pay, we clarified the sources of shale gas subsidy and calculated the required subsidy duration. The results indicate that some new development target areas and pre-invested target areas still need subsidies, which should be jointly provided by the central government, local finance departments, and other heavy-polluting enterprises. The subsidy duration and subsidy quota show a power function relation. On this basis, we put forward suggestions for shale gas subsidy policy.     

川气东送天然气管道水土保持工程施工技术

简单介绍了川气东送天然气管道水土保持工程的特点和重要性,以川渝、鄂西南地区特殊的地理自然环境为例,对管道工程的水土流失特点以及水土保持工程设计施工原则、工程措施、生物措施分别进行了详细的阐述,并以项目的实际施工验收成果证明了本水土保持施工技术的实用性和成熟性。     

断层应力状态对煤与瓦斯突出的控制

在建立断层面受力模型的基础上,通过断层面正应力和孔隙压力关系分析影响断面附近煤与瓦斯突出的关键参数,重新定义封闭系数并引入剪切指数概念,以此判断断层的封闭性及结构稳定性。研究发现,正应力大小与断层走向锐夹角正相关,而切应力与走向锐夹角关系取决于最大、最小水平应力和与正应力比值;在断层附近发生煤与瓦斯突出,依据断层结构参数和应力场差异,瓦斯压力存在极值条件,结合构造煤分布及瓦斯压力与正应力关系将其分为两大模式:流压控制型(FPC)和流–固耦合型(FSC),并通过一个具体案例证实断层应力状态对煤与瓦斯突出的控制。     

Condition-based maintenance decision support system for oil and gas pipelines

The 2013 report card of America's infrastructure has scored the condition of oil and gas pipelines as D+ which means that such pipelines are in a relatively poor condition. More than 10,000 failures have been recorded in the US. These failures have resulted in environmental, health and property damages. Therefore, there is a definite need to give more attention to the maintenance of oil and gas pipelines. This paper develops a comprehensive model for the maintenance planning of oil and gas pipelines. The model selects rehabilitation/repair alternatives for oil and gas pipelines based on their condition during their service life. These alternatives are then used to calculate the cash flow throughout the service life of these infrastructures. The model, which uses Monte Carlo simulation and fuzzy approach to address the uncertainties in the estimation of the maintenance operation costs and the economic parameters, calculates the Equivalent Uniform Annual Worth of the identified alternatives. The optimum maintenance programmes consist of the alternatives that have the lowest life cycle cost of oil and gas pipelines. The model is expected to support pipeline operators in the maintenance decision-making process of oil and gas pipelines.     

A unified model for the simulation of oil,gas and biomass space heating boilers for energy estimating purposes. Part II: Parameterization and comparison with measurements

A semi-physical model for the simulation of oil, gas and biomass space heating boilers has been parameterized based on measurements on nine different boiler units and simulation results have been compared to results obtained from measurements in steady state and transient operation. Although the agreement between simulated and measured boiler efficiencies was within the range of measurement uncertainties in most cases, model improvements are expected to be possible concerning the heat capacitance modelling in cycling on/off operation as well as influences of start and stop behaviour on the overall efficiency. It is found that electricity consumption during cycling on/off operation of small pellets or oil space heating boilers may have a significant influence on the overall energy balance of these units. This influence increases strongly with decreasing heat load and increasing number of on/off cycles.     

含油气砂岩突出的宏微观预测

随着煤炭开采深度的增加，岩石与瓦斯突出日益严重，其危害不亚于煤和瓦斯突出。突出危险性的准确预测是防突措施优劣成败的关键和首要环节。１９９５年３月９日，海石湾矿井发生了特大型砂岩和瓦斯突出。作者综合运用多种现场观测和室内试验方法，对该井筒接下去的含气岩层的突出危险性进行了宏微观综合评价。工程实践证明预测是准确的。     

A conceptual model for project management of exploration and production in the oil and gas industry: The case of a Brazilian company

The objective of this study was to obtain a better understanding of factors that influence Exploration and Production (E&P) project management success and corporate financial performance. The study follows structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology to achieve greater understanding of the intricate network of relationships between variables involved in E&P project management. A comprehensive theoretical framework was needed to formulate the conceptual basis of research. Observation of the real world and practical experiences were also important. To that end, we conducted a case study in a large Brazilian oil company. Field research was essential because of the lack of similar studies in the oil and gas sector. The model developed is a theoretical construct known as a structural and measurement model (set of latent variables, observed variables and hypotheses, depicted in a path diagram). This model contributes significantly to the company because it is a global representation of the main factors for improving E&P project management. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution because adjustment and validation of the theoretical model were not performed.     

New standards for the determination of geosmin and methylisoborneol in water by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Deuterium labelled geosmin and methylisoborneol (MIB) have been synthesized and evaluated as internal standards in the determination of geosmin and MIB in water by closed loop stripping followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The labelled standards were compared with chloroalkanes added as internal standards either at the time of sampling or immediately before closed loop stripping. When added at sampling time, the new standards enabled accurate determination of the geosmin and MIB present initially, even when the samples were analysed as much as 3 weeks later. The new standards gave better precision and accuracy than the chloroalkanes and overcame the underestimation of initial analyte concentration which usually results from losses of analyte through adsorption, volatilisation, biodegradation etc. during sample storage. Geosmin had a limit of detection of<0.1ng/l and 1 ng/lwas determined with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.2% (n = 5). MIB was determined at 1 ng/l with a CV of 3.5% (n = 5).