US probing cyber attacks on gas pipelines

Even as worries grow about foreign investors encroaching on the Canadian oil patch, other fears are mounting: Cyberattacks targeting Canada’s oil-and-gas industry and other major energy firms around the globe are occurring with disquieting frequency. Last March, three confidential ‘amber’ alerts were issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning of attacks against U.S. and Canadian natural gas pipeline companies. Most Canadian companies … are taking this threat seriously

A restricted US government report compiled by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states that 23 gas pipeline companies were targets of a cyber-attack in the six months from December 2011 to June 2012.Emails designed to trick key personnel into opening them were sent to the companies and managed to infiltrate systems and steal information that could be used to sabotage the pipelines.Independent cyber security researchers have traced the digital signatures of the attacks back to an espionage group which has close links with the Chinese military.Related…

The Department of Homeland Security has issued an alert warning that computer networks connected to privately-owned natural gas pipelines are presently under cyber attack in an “intrusion campaign” that began some four months ago and could extend to Canada.  The “amber” alert, the second highest cyber threat level, has been ongoing since December 2011, when the DHS noted that “multiple natural gas pipeline organizations have reported either attempts or intrusions related to this campaign”.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP will buy natural gas pipeline operator Copano Energy LLC for US$3.22-billion to tap into growing demand for infrastructure to transport vast supplies from the shale fields of Texas and Oklahoma. Private equity firm TPG Capital, Copano’s top shareholder with a stake of more than 14%, will get a 41% premium to its US$300-million investment made in 2010, if the deal goes through.

British Columbia’s deep-rooted environmentalism is about to get a much stronger counterpoint as a growing number of energy giants establish a corporate presence on the West Coast. Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Petronas, BG Group, Enbridge Inc., TransCanada Corp., Kinder Morgan have opened offices, are expanding or are planning to set up offices in Vancouver or nearby to oversee the planning of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants on the northern coast, build pipelines, talk up the benefits of energy development to policy makers, communities and First Nations.

Between 2004 and 2011, the United States laid enough new oil and gas pipelines to stretch three quarters of the way to the moon. The standoff over the controversial Keystone XL crude oil pipeline is not typical. In seven years, the U.S. laid more than 180,000 miles of new oil and gas pipelines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

ByValue Digger: Introduction The first pipeline build-out in the United States came during World War II when the Government ordered a two-pipeline system, the Big Inch and Little Big Inch, to carry oil and refined products to the Northeast from the Gulf Coast.