PII Technology Selected to Support Australian Natural Gas Pipeline Security

PERTH, AUSTRALIA; July 27, 2010: PII Pipeline Solutions, a GE Oil & Gas and Al Shaheen joint venture, has been selected to help improve the long-term security of two of Australia’s most important natural gas pipelines.

Securing the Dampier-to-Bunbury Pipeline

The 1,400-kilometer Dampier-to-Bunbury Pipeline (DBN) is one of Western Australia’s key energy supply assets. The 26-inch DBN pipeline is owned by Dampier-to-Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP) of Perth and delivers gas from the Carnarvon Basin in the North West Shelf to industrial, commercial and residential customers in the city of Perth and the surrounding region.

In the awarded contract, PII is supplying PipeView TM Integrity, its advanced suite of pipeline data monitoring and management software for deployment on the DBN pipeline through Contract Resources, its Australian operational partner on the project.

Michael Bellamy, General Manager - PII Pipeline Solutions said: “We are very pleased to partner with Contract Resources in supporting the energy supply security priorities of DBNGP with our reliable pipeline integrity technology.”

In May 2010, teams from PII’s pipeline data management Center of Excellence in Mission, Kansas, U.S. began implementing the project for the Dampier-to-Bunbury Pipeline. The two software modules include data-loading alignment and condition-assessment applications. 

Designing Custom Solution for Moomba-to-Sydney Gas Pipeline

In addition, PII recently signed a three-year contract to deploy one of its newest pipeline inspection tool - the EmatScan CD - to inspect nine (9), 150-km segments of the Moomba-to-Sydney Gas Pipeline, owned and operated by APA Group, Australia’s largest natural gas infrastructure business.

The Moomba-to-Sydney Gas Pipeline is 2,029 km long and links the Cooper Basin gas fields at Moomba with distribution networks in Sydney and regional New South Wales. The pipeline is one of two pipelines that deliver gas to the Sydney area.

PII will use the new Third Generation EmatScan tool to perform an estimated two inspection runs each year over the three-year contract period for enhanced crack detection and analysis, as part of APA’s pipeline integrity management programme.

PII’s Bellamy added: “Multi-year inspection contracts, like the APA project, allow for a more seamless comparison of data from multiple inspections over a period of time. This approach enables us to support operators with more effective monitoring of potential crack growth rates and devise cost-effective mitigation plans.”

Currently available for 30 and 36-inch lines, PII is developing a customized EmatScan CD to navigate the 34-inch Moomba-to-Sydney line. The tool is scheduled for launch in the Winter 2010-11. PII is leveraging project management and engineering resources from its facility in Stutensee, Germany for the APA program.

PII previously used its pipeline inspection technology for DBNGP and APA inspections. In 2009, APA was one of the world’s first operators to deploy PII’s latest generation of MagneScan MFL inspection tools.

Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia

FARNBOROUGH, England, 21 July, 2010: Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa, today announced the selection of the CFM56-5B engine to power its 44 Airbus A320 family aircraft order announced in 2007.  This new engine selection, which will more than double the airlines CFM56-5B powered A320 fleet, is valued at more than US$620 million at list price.

Together with the engine selection, Air Arabia also signed a multi-year Rate per Flight Hour (RPFH) service agreement for its CFM56-5B fleet.  The RPFH is a comprehensive maintenance program customized to Air Arabia specific needs under which CFM guarantees the maintenance cost on a dollar per engine flight hour basis.
 
“Air Arabia enjoys a long track record of operational excellence,” said Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia. “Our fleet growth strategy and the partners we work with, contributes to maintaining this record. We look forward for a long partnership with CFM in powering our new aircraft order”.

Air Arabia became a CFM customer in 2003 when the airline started operations with a CFM56-5B-powered Airbus A320.  The airline, which is the winner of the A320 Family Operational Excellence Award by Airbus, currently operates a total fleet of 23 CFM56-5B-powered A320s and the airlines confirmed order of 44 A320 aircraft is schedule to begin delivery later this year.  Air Arabia, which serves more than 60 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, was ranked first on Aviation Week’s TPC chart as 2009 world’s best LCC.

“We are obviously very pleased by Air Arabia’s selection of the CFM56-5B engine to power its A320 fleet,” said Eric Bachelet, president and CEO of CFM. “We have established a great relationship with the airline as an operator and are really looking forward to working more closely with them through the RPFH agreement to service and support its growing fleet.”

CFM56-5B engines are a product of CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between Snecma (Safran group) and GE. CFM, the world’s leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines, has delivered approximately 21,000 engines to date.

Etihad Finalizes GEnx Engine and OnPoint Solution Services Agreement

Farnborough, England; July 21, 2010: Emirates has ordered 30 GE90-115B-powered Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The engine order, including spare engines, is valued at US$2 billion list price. Deliveries will begin in late 2011.
 
Emirates has also signed a 12-year OnPointSM solution services agreement for the maintenance and overhaul of its GE90-115B engines. The contract is worth more than US$1 billion over its life.
 
“The GE90-115B engine offers significantly improved fuel efficiency, lower noise levels and reduced emissions, which Emirates requires as we continue to build our fleet of long-haul aircraft for the future,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group.
 
“Emirates is the largest operator of GE90-powered Boeing 777 aircraft,” said David Joyce, president and chief executive officer of GE Aviation. “Today’s order is another affirmation of the trust Emirates has in the aircraft-engine combination, and we look forward to ensuring the GE90 engine continues to provide outstanding performance to the airline.”
 
Emirates and GE Aviation have established a strong relationship. As one of the world’s fastest growing international airlines, Emirates operates eight CFM56-powered A340s and 65 GE90-powered 777-300ERs/-200LRs, with additional GE90-powered 777 aircraft and GEnx-powered Boeing 747-8 aircraft on order. The airline is also the largest customer for the Airbus A380 and the Engine Alliance’s GP7200 engines with 90 A380s on order.
 
At 115,000 pounds of thrust, the GE90-115B engine includes such performance-enhancing features as three-dimensional aerodynamic (3-D aero) compressor and wide-chord, swept composite fan blades for greater efficiency. The dual annular combustor emits no more than 40 percent of the hydrocarbons allowed by today’s international standards.

The GE90-115B engine has proven to be tremendously popular with customers around the world, with more than 1,100 engines being sold. Snecma of France, Avio SpA. of Italy, and IHI of Japan are revenue-sharing participants in the GE90 program. The GE90-115B is part of GE’s “ecomagination” product portfolio — GE’s commitment to develop new, cost-effective technologies that enhance customers’ fuel efficiencies and operating performance.

OnPoint solutions are customized service agreements tailored to the operational and financial needs of each customer for any size fleet. These agreements are designed to help lower the customers’ cost of ownership and maximize the use of their assets.
 

Swiss International Air Lines has topped the 2010 Airline Satisfaction Survey conducted by “Which?”, the UK-based consumer magazine. The carrier earned the number-one spot against 17 European airline competitors.

The readers of “Which?”, the UK’s biggest-circulation consumer magazine, have voted SWISS number one in the publication’s latest Airline Satisfaction Survey. Over 5 700 respondents gave their views on their most recent short-haul flight in the online poll. As a result of their input, SWISS earned the maximum four-star rating for the quality of its cabin staff, its cleanliness, its seating arrangements, its checked and cabin baggage allowances and its overall value for money.    

“We’re delighted to earn this distinction,” says Mr. Martin Massueger Director, Head of Sales Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Iran for Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS). “We’re very proud to have been voted number-one airline by our customers. And we see this result as a tribute to our hospitality and our commitment to ensuring that every one of our guests feels at home aboard our flights.  At SWISS, we are serious about satisfying our customers travel needs be it short or long-haul flights.” 

SWISS also earned the coveted Skytrax 2010 World Airline Award for its Staff Service Excellence in Europe last month, following a survey of several million travellers from over 100 countries. And Switzerland’s “Bilanz” business magazine also named SWISS Best European Carrier in its latest airline ratings at the beginning of this month. 
 
This summer, SWISS connects passengers to 73 destinations in 39 countries and offers great value to Middle East travellers to Europe for as low as starting from AED2675 inclusive of taxes and charges.  SWISS operates daily flights from Muscat and non-stop daily flights from Dubai to Zurich.  The airline also now flies to San Francisco, USA for those looking to spend summer in the Bay Area.

SWISS’s connections are seamless and made easier for passengers who are on the go.  Checking in for example is as swift as doing it online via www.swiss.com or at quick check-in kiosks prominently placed in major points of the Zurich Airport. 

BENTLEY OFFERS FIRST GLIMPSE OF MULSANNE CRAFTSMANSHIP AT NEW BODY ASSEMBLY CENTRE

(Crewe, England. 4 February 2010) The design of the Mulsanne, Bentley’s new flagship, is a compelling fusion of sportiness, solidity and coach-built elegance – created on a grand scale. Its sweeping bonnet and long overhang convey a sense of power and movement, enhanced by the muscular haunches and sharply sculpted lines flowing gracefully from the front wings to the rear.

Now Bentley is offering an early preview of the complex processes, advanced technology, traditional British coachbuilding skills and painstaking attention to detail that will deliver the design and engineering vision of a car created without compromise.

The shining bare metal shells that will eventually become Bentley’s new flagship are created using a combination of high-strength steels and aluminium. These components are assembled into a complete shell using techniques that range from industry-leading adhesives through to hand-crafted brazing skills.

It requires 125 man-hours to create the body of a pre-production Mulsanne at the new 7,500m2 Assembly Centre. And inside the multi-million pound facility, robotic arms carrying massive self-piercing riveters work in harmony with coachbuilders renowned for their metalworking skills at the company’s Crewe factory.

For example, the Mulsanne’s hewn from solid appearance without visible panel seams is impossible in volume car manufacture. The seamless sweep of the Mulsanne’s roof, rear wing and boot can only be achieved by crafting a hand-brazed seam midway down the D-pillar, a task still best performed with ‘hand and eye’ by Bentley’s award-winning craftsmen. The quality of this type of work has earned Crewe’s craftsmen the rare distinction of a medal from the British Institute of Sheet Metal Engineering.

In complete contrast to the craftsman’s time-honoured skills, is the use of superforming which is essential to create the highly-complex three dimensional curves of the Mulsanne’s front wings. This advanced technique, primarily used by the aerospace industry, heats a single sheet of aluminium to 500 degrees centigrade and then forces it onto a single surface tool using air pressure.

As Bentley prepares to produce the very first customer cars later this year, the body assembly team are undertaking a range of exhaustive tests on the first bodies being developed in pre-production.

This includes tearing apart completed bodies with specialist cutting gear to analyse the breaking point of a seam or weld as well as minutely measuring the accuracy of finished components and bodyshells – a remarkable 588 functions and relationships are measured to ensure complete precision. In addition to cutting apart bodyshells, Bentley uses ultrasonic measuring equipment to analyse the strength and consistency of individual welds.

Gary Picken, Senior Production Manager, explains:

“During these early, pre-production stages we are exhaustively testing the build process to achieve the absolute precision and quality we are seeking for our customers.”

Prospective Mulsanne customers will be able to see their cars take shape, from individual panels to finished body, in a specially designed viewing gallery. It has been created to offer a perfect view of every stage of the build process and watch the 100-strong team at work. Gary Picken adds:

“The Mulsanne has a beautiful and very complex body made from an intelligent mix of high-strength steels, aluminium and composites. Within one assembly area we’re utilising traditional skills for which Bentley is renowned right alongside state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. We combine these two different approaches because it is the best possible route to create a car that will be enjoyed by generations of drivers.”

As a contemporary artist living and working in New York, Diana Al-Hadid a 27-year-old sculptor from Syria, has achieved the kind of success one might expect from someone twice her age.  Constructing large architectural sculptures from media such as polystyrene, plaster, fibreglass, wood and wax, Al-Hadid has already won numerous awards for her work, from the Sculpture Space in 2005 to the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2007.  Read the full story

In an article published in the National, the idea that children who are obese could in fact have a shorter life expectancy than their parents was nothing more than a serious wake-up-call.  With 60% of New Yorkers overweight or obese, the article focuses on Manhattan and new ideas that may be introduced to tackle the obesity epidemic, such as taxing sugary drinks. Although the Government has already banned smoking in public places, prohibited restaurants from using trans fats and forced fast-food restaurants chains to post calorie counts on its menus, the idea of the government imposing further regulation on businesses has provoked mixed reactions amongst businesses. In the UAE, obesity levels are just as alarming with 12% of the country’s children overweight and another 22% susceptible to obesity due to a lack of exercise and poor diet. In recent months, a three-month publicity drive, The Fat Truth, was spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, the wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Who is to blame for the high levels of obesity? The Media for portraying images of stick thin celebrities, The Government, Businesses, or is it us? Are we to blame for putting the high fat, low calorie junk food into our and our children’s mouths day after day?

SOURCES
The National - Teachers and Doctors call for obesity screening in schools read full article here
The National - City to dish out second helping of food reform read full article here