Memphis-based Barnhart Crane and Rigging Co. recently set a record for the highest lift to date with its proprietary modular lift tower, placing a 300-ton ethane recovery column more than 200 ft. at the Amerada Hess natural gas processing plant in Seminole.

The lift was the largest and heaviest of a new process unit construction project at the plant, according to Scott Wilson, project salesman for Barnhart.

Barnhart worked as a subcontractor for Odessa-based Marks Crane and Rigging Co., and Marks operations manager David Landreth characterized the lift as "a lifting milestone," and praised the combined efforts of the two companies in "using a Modular Lift Tower system with a rated capacity of 1 million pounds." Landreth called Barnhart Crane "a first class company."

Company riggers from Barnhart erected the modular lift tower in four days, sustaining winds of up to 60 mph during erection. Barnhart utilized a Demag CC2000 crawler crane for erection of the lift tower and tailing of the vessel. The crane used 177 ft. of main boom and a 138-ft. luffing jib to erect the tower, which measured 263 ft.

Barnhart employed a 450-ton strand jack as the main lifting system on the lift tower. The lift took approximately five hours to complete and began before dawn.

Energy Transfer Co., a Dallas-based natural gas gathering, processing and treating company, has begun activity on construction of a natural gas pipeline from Limestone County east of Waco to western Harris County near Katy.

Fort Worth-based XTO Energy Inc. will be the pipeline's initial customer.

"The industry has recognized the growing need for additional pipeline capacity from East Texas to the diversified markets at the Katy Hub capacity due to several successful drilling programs in the Barnett Shale and Bossier Sands formations," said Dean Fuller, senior vice president of Energy Transfer. "This project is phase one of a multi-step program that will allow greater access out of the East Texas area to the intrastate and interstate markets accessible at the Katy Hub."

The new pipeline, which expands Energy Transfer's existing South Texas and Oasis pipeline systems, is expected to begin operations in mid-2004 with an initial capacity of 650 million cu. ft. per day expandable to 1 billion cu. ft. per day.

Corpus Christi-based Tidelands Oil & Gas Corp. recently announced that Reef International LLC has commenced construction on its International Pipeline Project between Texas and Mexico.

The 12-in. natural gas pipeline will be used to deliver natural gas produced in Maverick County and redelivered to a utility in the State of Coahuila, Mexico. The 6-in. natural gas liquids pipeline, including loading and unloading facilities, will transport a butane/propane mixture into Mexico.

Construction bids were awarded to R&R Contractors/Pickett Measurement of Corpus Christi for the first phase of construction, which includes all measurement skids, pig stations and odorization stations for the pipeline.

Estimated completion for the pipeline is early September.

Houston-based Foster Wheeler Ltd. recently announced that BSF - a consortium of Bechtel Petroleum and Chemical of the United States, Sinopec Engineering Inc. of China and Foster Wheeler Energy Limited of the UK - has been appointed project management contractor for the implementation phase of a $4.3 billion petrochemicals complex in China's Guangdong province.

The award follows BSF's successful completion of the project's 17-month definition phase.

The CSPC Nanhai Petrochemicals Project, owned by CNOOC and Dutch-based Shell Petrochemicals Co. Ltd., is the largest Sino-foreign investment in China to date.

The grassroots project will involve the construction of an ethylene cracker with a capacity of 800,000 tons per year, together with other process units, power generation, utilities and infrastructure.

The complex will produce styrene monomer, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol, polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene and linear high-density polyethylene.

The complex is scheduled to start operations at the end of 2005.