Oil and Natural Gas 101: A Beginner's Guide

a lot of people don't understand how complex the oil and gas industry is not only is it Global and it's a fungible product meaning we can move it all over the place um for different reasons uh usually market demand but you know it can be used for many different uh applications um different products within the refined product stream whether it's jet fuel diesel distillates gasoline Etc um and within all of those different product streams there are there are very long Supply chains as I explained earlier from exploration production to transportation to refining processing and distribution it's really complicated unlike electricity that travels at the speed of light natural gas moves by pressure through pipelines at an average speed of 15 to 20 mph this allows time for pipeline operators to manage the flow of natural gas and to adjust their operations in the unlikely event of A disruption we can follow the Journey of the natural gas molecule where it starts out at production and at that point it goes through a processing um uh system where the natural gas molecule is actually cleaned so to speak scrubbed um so that the majority of the product that is traveling through the pipeline to the destiny is actually methane it's not all methane but the majority of it is uh the gas is then then put under extreme pressure um driven up to about 700 lb per square in that's equivalent to if you could think of a baby elephant's about 200 lb if you think about 3 and 1/2 baby elephants um standing on your thumbnail that's how much pressure is behind this little natural gas molecule it travels through the pipeline system and that transmission they have compressor stations about 50 or so Miles every 50 or so miles across the system and that applies the pressure further on the natural gas molecule to push it through the system and that's how the natural gas actually travels is under pressure and then as it gets to the Distribution Center which is your local natural gas utility that the the pressure is reduced significantly to um much less than 700 pounds per square inch possibly 60 pounds per square inch and then by the time the natural gas is coming through um your meter at your house it's probably coming through at the the weight of an apple um so you've gone from 3 and 1/2 baby elephants that weight down to about the weight of an apple on your fingernail and then by the time it comes out of your um gas stove it is equivalent to blowing through a straw so that is the Journey of the natural gas molecule through the three major segments of the um natural gas value chain there's a lot of Technology involved I've said for many years you know the reason we became the number one prod producer of oil and natural gas in the world is because of technological innovation so there's a lot of complexity a lot of engineering that goes into all this common misconception we often correct is that we own the gas that is in our pipelines the gas that is transported in our pipelines belongs to the shipper such as utilities that are legally required to maintain service pipelines do not sell the gas consumers needing gas at delivery points obtain gas via a pipeline shippers not the pipeline itself a second misconception related to the first is that pipelines have the authority and can redirect gas should a disruptive event occur attempts to redirect gas disregard the potential irreparable harm caused to other customers that may rely on gas supplies for essential Human Services Beyond Residential Heating and would be a violation of the pipeline tariff pipelines currently do whatever they can within the Tariff to support emergency recovery but diversion of gas puts pipelines at risk of serious liability for prioritizing shippers in a way that violates the Tariff you never or wait until an incident happens to know who you need to know that's in our handbook so we really encourage everyone to get engaged early and often and that's why we participate in things like this and what our State offices are out there to do is to engage with states to make sure they understand the complexity but also the importance of the energy infrastructure in the region the physical operations of natural gas production transmission distribution make the system inherently reliable and resilient disruptions to Natural Gas infrastructure are rare when they do happen A disruption of the system does not necessarily result in an interruption of scheduled deliveries of natural gas supply because the natural gas system has many ways of offsetting the impact of disruptions because pipeline operators ability to manage natural gas on their transportation systems a failure at any single point on the system typically has only a localized effect if any moreover most natural gas facilities include both manual shut off and automated shut off controls which would prevent the entire system from suffering a large scale failure if a bad actor sought to damage a facility or meddle with a section of the pipeline on a larger scale the sector routinely holds briefings and workshops to discuss security and operational concerns and to continue to develop best practices to protect facilities data and Personnel doe serves as a sector risk management Agency for the energy sector meaning it is the agency designated to leverage its particular knowledge and expertise to coordinate and collaborate with the omcc on Incident Management and any other sector specific activities