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Bonnie & Clyde: Resurrection Road is anything but a staid thriller or historical re-invention: it's a thought-provoking if not fantastic story of actions, consequences, and the driving forces that turn [...]

Opportunities for contractors in the U.S. petroleum market are continuing to shrink because the major oil companies are focusing their efforts and dollars in the international arena. The shortage of natural gas has also prompted producers to reconsider areas that were previously too expensive to drill, such as the Shallow Gulf of Mexico.

Contractors working in the US power industry are worried due to the overbuilding of natural gas-fired power plants. The Energy Information Administration revealed that between 2002 and 2025, 356,000 MW of new capacity would be required as electricity use grows and older, inefficient plants are retired.

Domestic oil prices are historically high because of growing demand in China, the continuing violence in Iraq, uncertainty about government intensions of Russian oil production and continued labor unrest in western Africa. While these prices boost short-term earnings for owners, they do not necessarily stimulate new capital projects for contractors in the oil and gas sector in US LNG market.

The global market of the oil and gas industry is discussed. The recent alliances between petroleum companies are explored.

The global market of the power industry is discussed. It is stated that the international investment in the electricity sector has declined.

The reporter investigates the storage tanks brimming with toxic chemicals. The effect of the attack on chemical plants or storage sites, which could release the toxic clouds, is detailed.

The small reservoirs of oil and gas in the United States cannot compete with emerging markets overseas like the enormous oil fields of the Russian Far East. Projects in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska still offer opportunities to design firms especially in the modification of existing works.

The decentralized infrastructure of the oil and gas industry is vulnerable to coordinated terrorist attacks, according to recent investigations. The article discusses the challenges in protecting U.S. pipelines from potential threats.

The decentralized nature of the United States' energy infrastructure makes it vulnerable to sustained or coordinated terrorist attacks. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, oil and gas companies quickly worked to increase security at U.S. facilities, but have remained silent about what those particular steps have been. More discussion on infrastructure security is provided.

Article examines the changing economics of wind power in the United States. More and more, utilities are looking at wind power to meet demands for green energy and fulfill renewable power mandates.

Portland General Electric Co. intends to discard of two 90 year old gravity dams for economic reasons. The procurement contracts for this project are slated to be awarded in 2005, again, because of economic reasons.

The Madrid rail bombings highlighted security concerns on ground transportation in New York and other cities, which transport millions of passengers daily. The main problem is how to secure transit and inter-city rail and at the same time maintain their roles as convenient, inexpensive and accessible ways to travel in and between congested cities. Several measures are being deployed to tighten security, secure buildings and prevent gas and chemical attacks.

The use of Geographical Information System (GIS) for planning is increasing despite certain limitations. The role of GIS has changed in the past few years from a 'nice analysis tool for an individual project' to a user friendly tool that supports an enterprise.

Contractors and homeowners, who wanted to purchase plywood, experienced a rise in price due to the demand exceeding the supply. It is stated that the housing market was responsible for the supply-demand imbalance and residential construction accounts for roughly half of all demand for structural wood panels.

Growth and recent investments in wind power projects in the United States and global wind power development are discussed.

The development of fuel cells may assist rural electrification programs in Latin American countries. Fuel cells that electrochemically combine oxygen and hydrogen will most likely be perfected in the United States, Europe, and Japan first.

The subsequent release of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Gulf Coast refiners tempered the feared near-term super-spike in prices. The relaxation of federal regulations related to domestic crude oil shipping and gasoline formulations circumvented a significant supply disruption by allowing more European imports of refined products.

Seattle's monorail project is stalled, but the city's green light for a 2.6-mile streetcar line linking the central business district with South Lake Union, a former industrial area to the north is likely to cement momentum driving the SLU's transformation. The city estimates 14 million sq ft of commercial and residential development between 2001 and 2020.

The higher gasoline prices and environmentalism have tempted drivers to switch to fuel-efficient cars such as Hybrids. The Oregon State University engineering researches in Eugene have designed an in-vehicle system that relies on a 'smart' odometer paired with wireless technology to calculate how many miles a vehicle travels before refueling.

Officials are working on building a crucial section of Sound Transit's $2.4 billion, 14-mile light rail system that would connect downtown Seattle to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The Beacon-Hill segment consists of two parallel 4,300 ft-long, 18.8 ft-diameter tunnels to be built with a 335-ton earth pressure balance tunnel-boring machine.

The Brightwater Regional Wastewater Treatment System is reported to be in the final phase. The program is $1.5 billion-King County, Washington, green field project that includes 12.6 miles of conveyance, a wastewater treatment plant and a 6,200-ft marine outfall into Puget Sound, and will accommodate a projected population growth of nearly 1 million people by 2004.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is permitting Washington state utility to replace one of the 10 aging turbines at its 900-MW Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River with a specially designed unit to increase survival of millions of juvenile salmon, which migrate annually through the hydro plant. This new turbine design is expected to increase operational flexibility and power output during fish migration when flow rates and spills are defined by environmental rules.

MasTec Incorporation, the big Miami-based specialty contractor is building a gas pipeline between Coos Bay and Roseberg in Oregon, but the level of environmental scrutiny is high even for environmentally conscious Oregon because building trade unions have targeted nonunion MasTec as part of a pressure campaign. The environmental troubles finally ruined the working relationship between Coos County and the contractor.

A novel technology that uses the kinetic energy of ocean waves to generate electricity for the deployment of the California coast is described. It protects sensitive electrical equipment from corrosive seawater by locating turbines, circuitry and transmission cables on land.

Blending is the practice of dumping partially treated sewage into the nation's waterways. The Environmental groups recommend the development of strategies for treating sewage under all conditions.

The deployment of fuel-cell and hydrogen infrastructure projects is discussed. It is expected that the program will create a dense geographic concentration of commercial projects.

The Pacific Northwest's system to transmit power is utilized to its optimum level and to overcome this situation a plan is chalked out to increase this network upto 155 miles, which involves the stakeholders also. A committee of 18 people from the various fields will check a few points like how feasible it is to have the energy efficiency programs, the pricing strategies, etc., and will also determine the situations where construction seems to be the best method to meet the energy requirements.

Smithfield Foods intends to build a new plant that will change swine manure into biodiesel fuel. The new facility will be constructed at the company's Circle Four Farms in Utah at a cost of $20 million.

Construction on the $1.1 billion Cogburn Magnesium Project may begin in six to eight months. Work on the British Columbia magnesium mine will be managed by Hatch Associates Ltd. of Montreal, and will involve 12 contractors.

Freespan Inc., designer of hybrid bridges, has received a patent for a bridge design and is searching for contracts for bridge sites in the US. The innovative bridge design needs no large abutments and supports required by a conventional bridge.

A new power-cycle technology developed by Advanced Thermal Systems may allow geothermal plants to compete with gas-fired turbines. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2005 and the plant is expected to generate electricity at about 4 cents per kwh.

The Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta is near completion with production to start in early 2003. The project is a joint venture of Shell Canada, Western Oil Sands Inc., and Chevron Canada.

The article focuses on infrastructure need of the oil and gas industry in the U.S. Multinational energy companies are investing in new infrastructure projects at record rates, but only a small fraction of these are slated for the U.S. In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, sizable new reserves that require infrastructure design and construction are still being discovered. A decade ago, oil and gas production from deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico was relatively rare. BP Exploration and ExxonMobil are partners in the development of the Thunder Horse field, located in water 6,000 ft deep.

This article states that the bombings on railways in Madrid, Spain on March 11, 2003 which killed 191 and wounded 2,000 highlighted a stark reality long known to security experts. They say protecting ground transportation from terrorism is a task that will require billions of dollars, innovative approaches, years of effort, accelerated research--and ultimately will be only moderately effective. And doing better will be a big challenge. In New York City, commuter lines and subways handle 5 million passengers on weekday.

The article reports that although the U.S. government and industry are moving to increase supply with imported liquefied natural gas, generators and utilities are wary of the type of instability that has characterized the imported oil market. In contrast to the fevered pitch of construction of natural gas-fired plants in the boom of the late 1990s and first part of this decade, coal's move back to center stage is likely to be gradual. Construction of coal plants tends to take up to two years longer than combined-cycle natural gas plants because of the larger amount of infrastructure required to accommodate solid fuel transport and storage.

The article focuses on the present state of petroleum in North America. Even before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 28, sustained high oil prices were changing broad market dynamics for contractors in North America. Strong demand from the large industrializing economies of China and India and instability in oil-rich regions have resulted in aggressive competition for worldwide resources. After an initial price spike, crude oil prices returned to pre-Katrina trends, although prices for refined products and for natural gas could stay higher for some time. One pipeline project that is expected to serve as a catalyst for new drilling and eventually for construction of significant gas processing infrastructure is the proposed pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to the lower 48 states.

The article reports that high natural gas prices have slowed the construction of power plants in the U.S. to a near standstill as utilities and other owners evaluate strategies to protect themselves from market volatility. There is uncertainty about where the price of natural gas is going to be in the future, says Don Zabilansky, senior vice president of CH2M Hill Lockwood Greene. For the short-term at least, the implications of high natural gas prices for new plants are more philosophical than practical, because the U.S. remains over-built in terms of power supply.

This article reports that contractors working in the U.S. power industry have been hard hit by the recent overbuilding of natural gas-fired powerplants. This excess capacity will likely not be absorbed until the end of the decade, despite anticipated steady growth in demand for electricity, sources say. Higher fuel prices also are prompting utilities and power developers to look beyond natural gas to new coal-fired plants. To support the next generation of U.S. nuclear powerplants, the nuclear industry and the federal government have been building both political muscle and analytical foundation.

This article focuses on the issue of rising energy prices. As the November election nears, energy issues have moved to center stage. The heightened attention is reinforced by sky-high oil prices that passed $40 per barrel over the summer. The relentless worldwide thirst for oil-fueled especially by growing demand in China, the continuing violence in Iraq, uncertainty about government intentions of Russian oil production and continued labor unrest in western Africa have all conspired to drive oil prices to these historically high levels. While these prices boost short-term earnings for owners, they do not necessarily stimulate new capital projects for contractors in the oil and gas sector.

As the price of oil soars to levels not seen in nearly two decades, multinationals are aggressively committing funds to new field development and associated infrastructure. Unfortunately, for domestic design firms, these expenditures are largely occurring outside the U.S., a trend that shows little sign of slowing down given the shrinking size of the domestic oil and gas resource base. Consolidation and globalization is shifting the sector away from Houston, the traditional center for oil and gas engineering. Mustang recently was awarded a contract from Chevron-Texaco to perform the front-end engineering design for the Tahiti field's topsides oil and gas processing facility.