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GPA
eBrief - May 2007
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Tech
Talk – Activities of GPA’s Technical Committee and
Technical Sections
Technical
Section Nomenclature
The
naming nomenclature of the sections
has changed. All technical sections will be referred to by their
actual title rather than the letter designation. This will allow
those less familiar with the activities a clear understanding of
the technical sections roles.
Technical
Committee and Section Leadership Changes
On
March 14th Paul Sibal, ExxonMobil was named Vice Chairman of the
Technical Committee. Mr. Sibal replaced Carl Soderman, DCP Midstream.
Mr. Soderman was elevated to the Chair of the Technical Committee.
The Operations and Maintenance Section (Section M) is now Chaired
by Mike Brumley, Chevron USA. Mr. Brumley replaced outgoing Chair
Mike Spinks, Enterprise Products. Ajey Chandra, Hess Corporation
will serve as the new Vice Chair. Please welcome these three individuals
to their new roles.
GPA
Facilities Design Technical Section (Section A)
Design
Practices Workgroup - The section has made considerable progress
with its Design Practices Workgroup. To assist in the progress,
Enterprise has agreed to allow GPA the use of its gas plant specifications
which were developed with OPD. The section hopes to have work completed
on the specifications in time to vote on them at the GPA Fall meeting.
Plant
Spacing Guidelines – Work is continuing on the Plant Spacing
Guidelines. Once completed, these guidelines could be used by facility
designers to lessen the footprint of future plants.
GPA
Analysis and Test Methods Technical Section (Section B)
34th
School of Gas Chromatography - Preparations for the school are well
underway. It will be held July 23rd – 27th at the University
of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK USA. This is earlier than it is traditionally
held due to a conflict with the PGA Championship Golf Tournament
being held in Tulsa this year. We are expecting, and looking forward
to another great week of training. If you would like to attend,
or send a student to the school please visit this link: http://www.gasprocessors.com/PdfFiles/ChromoRegForm07.pdf
GPA
Product Specifications Section (Section C)
This
Section and the GPA Technical Committee recently co-balloted a proposed
set of fractionation grade product specifications. The new specifications
include ethane, ethane-propane mix, wet propane, iso-butane, n-butane,
and natural gasoline. Although one negative ballot was received,
it has been resolved. The proposed specifications will now be balloted
to the GPA Board of Directors.
GPA
Product Measurement Section (Section H)
They
recently balloted drafts of TP-15 (Revised 2007) Calculation of
Vapor Pressures, and TP-27 Temperature Volume Correction of Light
Hydrocarbons. Both documents will be available in the near future.
TP-27 will contain both FPS and SI units of measurement.
A
review and update of GPA 2145-03 Properties of Light Hydrocarbons
will soon be undertaken in order to meet the five year review requirement.
Properties for ethylene and propylene will be included in the update.
GPA
Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Technical Section (Section
M)
Recruitment
and Training of O&M Personnel – Group members are addressing
one of the hottest topics around the industry these days…the
need for new O&M personnel. They will coordinate GPA efforts,
including assisting current educational programs (like the degree
program at OSU Okmulgee), developing new programs at additional
schools and facilitating discussions between member companies. As
part of this initiative, Johnny Payne, BP, made a recruitment presentation
to the O&M group in March. If you are interested in having Mr.
Payne make the presentation to your group, contact Kenny Wheat,
GPA, at kwheat@gasprocessors.com or 918-493-3872.
Topics
of General Interest
GPA/GPSA
Career Center
The Career Center was displayed at the GPA Annual Convention in
San Antonio. We hope you had a chance to view the site and ask any
questions you may have had. Promotions and exposure at the Convention
has resulted in an increased activity on the site (such as job postings,
browsing job postings, etc.).
To
encourage additional activity, we are offering a Single, 30-Day
Job Posting any time in May, June or July, 2007 to GPA/GPSA Members
for $100 and to Non-Members for $200. Employers, go to http://careers.gasprocessors.com/hr,
login (or register if you’ve never used the site before) and
post your job using the appropriate Promotion Code listed below.
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Members
use: MJJ07MEM
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Non-Members
use: MJJ07NON
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We
need to grow the industry and what better way than by placing the
right people in the right job! Help us help you by utilizing the
site today!
OSU
Okmulgee Natural Gas Compression Program
Enrollment continues to increase at the OSU Okmulgee Natural Gas
Compression Program. Having 70 students currently enrolled and 30
expected to graduate, this program is a great success story. Gary
Hobbie, OSU Okmulgee, said that he hopes to grow the program to
accommodate approximately 100 students, graduating about 50 students
per year. To sustain and expand a program such as this, Mr. Hobbie
is continually searching for equipment donations from industry which
is used to train the students. Mr. Hobbie has provided GPA a “wish
list” of sorts shown below. For information on sponsoring a
student and/ or donating equipment to the program, please contact
Gary Hobbie at OSU Okmulgee (gary.hobbie@okstate.edu or 918-293-5392)
New
GPA Member Companies
Welcome to new members of GPA...below are those joining Since October
2006... Also listed is their Official Representative.
ACCROVEN
- Ali Balza
AKA
Energy - Dennis Casto
Blackbrush
Oil & Gas - Chris Stewart
Bluestem
Pipeline - Doug Klaassen
Ceritas
Energy - Ralph Neumann
El
Paso Production - Dean Burton
Hanlon
Gas Processing - Gregg Goodall
Kayne
Anderson Capital Advisors - Ron Logan
Occidental
Oil & Gas - Bill Boyer
Oil
& Natural Gas Corp. - D. K. Ralli
PVR
Midstream - Michael Wood
Rock
Creek Energy - Ken Teague
United
Gas Derivatives Co. - Husseiny Koteim
NGL
Market Information Committee
This group welcomes a new leadership team. Dan Lippe, Petral Worldwide
Inc., is now serving as Chair and Dennis Plato, Targa Resources,
is the Vice Chair. An update of their committee activities will
be highlighted in future issues of eBrief.
GPA
Research Program
Today’s Research Ensures a Stronger Industry for Tomorrow
We
are pleased to announce that all 2007 research projects have passed.
The average pass rate of 90% validates that the industry believes
in and appreciates the work accomplished by the program. We have
listed each project and its pass rate below. We have six continuing
projects (042 through 063) totaling $310K, and four new projects
(071-074) totaling $220K. We also have received $25K from GPSA for
work on the Data Base and the GPSA Engineering Data Book.
#
Project Name...Pass
%
042
Acid Gas Injection Design Data...91.00%
051
Mercury in Gas Processing Plants...91.76%
052
Methanol Distribution in Fractionation...89.55%
061
Glycol / Amines Transport Properties...89.94%
062
Inhibitor / Salt Effects on Hydrates...91.31%
063
Hydrocarbon Dewpoints Testing...89.72%
071
Solubility of Heavy Hydrocarbons in
Amines...89.94%
072
Sulfur Species Distribution in 3 Phase
Separators...89.30%
073
Oxygen Removal in Natural Gas...91.61%
074
Effect of Gas Gravity, H2S, &
Salinity on Wet Natural Gas...89.92%
Message
from Mark Sutton, Executive Director
Convention
Thoughts
Now that the dust has settled on another GPA Annual Meeting it’s
time to critique a little and look forward to next year’s meeting.
From a staff perspective, the meeting in San Antonio went extremely
well! Over 1,500 people attended the meeting – which made it
our highest convention registration since 2001. Special congratulations
are extended to Barry Oakes (Chair), Bob Purgason (Vice Chair) and
the rest of the volunteers from the Program Committee for providing
an outstanding program. Committee meetings, for the most part, were
well attended and their work to keep the industry’s house in
order continues. Our GPSA colleagues continued their tradition of
maximizing the enjoyment factor of the event. They provided support,
sponsorships and entertainment at the Tuesday night dinner (although
DFW rain delays provided challenges). To everyone involved, please
accept the thanks from those who attended the meeting – JOB
WELL DONE!
The
87th Convention will be back in Grapevine, Texas, at the Gaylord
Texan Resort and Convention Center on March 3-5, 2008. The Program
Committee has been appointed by GPA President Gene Thomas and will
be led by Chair Bob Purgason, Crosstex Energy. The committee will
hold its first planning meeting next month in Scottsdale. Mark your
calendars now and be sure to attend the gas processing industry’s
premier event!
Strategic
Planning
Just a brief update on what President Thomas provided to the membership
in March regarding GPA’s strategic initiatives. Our Communications
Initiative, led by Joel Moxley with Crosstex, is moving along rapidly.
The Strategic Communications Team has interviewed four potential
communications firms that responded to our Request for Proposals.
Based on the results of that meeting, an agreement to work with
Dollahon PR should be in place shortly. Membership should be seeing
results of this effort within the next few months.
Our
Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Initiative group, chaired by
Rob Martinovich, DCP Midstream, is very close to finalizing a recommendation
to the Board of Directors. This recommendation will include the
strategic team’s position on how GPA will handle state and
federal advocacy activities.
Our
Domestic Chapter/International Affiliate Organization Initiative
is also making excellent progress. After the March meeting, a GPA
International Committee has been formed and the committee has been
staffed by volunteers from international GPA affiliate organizations.
In addition, we are seeing some recent signs of solid progress in
developing a forum to exchange gas processing technical information
in Southeast Asia. We’ll have more to report in future issues
of the eBrief.
Bob
Dunn with Prism Gas Systems is leading this issue and has had several
meetings with various stakeholders of the GPA Domestic Chapter activities.
Many great ideas have been discussed that would assist the chapters
in serving their members and provide benefit to GPA. A Chapter Officers
Leadership meeting has been scheduled for July 18 & 19 in Albuquerque,
NM to further develop recommendations from the group.
Bill
Puckett with Eagle Rock Energy has championed our Committee Participation
and Restructuring Initiative. Since March, a survey (conducted at
the Annual Meeting) was completed by attendees of the Operations
& Maintenance and Facilities Design Sections. The survey focused
on what services these committees could provide GPA membership and
the industry right now, and in the future. A related survey has
been distributed to all GPA Official Representatives and we ask
that each company take a few minutes to provide their company’s
perspective.
The
last initiative that the Strategic Task Force is working on is that
of the industry’s “graying” workforce. Alan Armstrong
(Williams Midstream) and Henry Galpin (Pioneer Resources) have been
diligently pursuing opportunities to highlight the midstream industry
to several different universities and to educate college undergraduates
on our business. Look for this effort to expand and contact either
Alan or Henry if you would like to help.
Membership
Demographics
Please allow me to use a little space here to give all of our U.S.
GPA members a “heads-up” regarding a new effort to collect
some important demographic information from the membership. This
effort stems from our expanded legs and regs efforts and will allow
GPA to better explain to legislators and regulators the breadth
of our industry and the companies represented. Information we are
considering collecting includes plant asset information (including
miles of pipelines and certain processing details), select company
tax data, and some employee demographic data. We would ask that,
if the decision is made to pursue the collection of these data,
each company make a good faith effort to collect and return the
information is a timely manner.
PERC
MOU
GPA and the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) are
in the final stages of signing off on a Partnership Agreement between
the two organizations. A draft Memo of Understanding has been reviewed
by GPA and returned to PERC staff for approval. The MOU would provide
GPA’s R&D program with an additional $150,000 for projects
beginning in 2008. Two potential projects have been identified to
pursue, one involves methanol separation from propane technologies
and the other would attempt to correlate freeze valve results and
water/methanol content. These projects will be mutually beneficial
to GPA and PERC.
LARAC
and EHSC Update...Johnny Dreyer
Along
with the traditional issues handled by these groups, additional
issues have surfaced as the midstream industry becomes more visible
to legislators and regulators. Much of this closer scrutiny is a
result of the facility damage from the Gulf of Mexico storms in
2005. It highlighted the importance of the infrastructure operated
and maintained by GPA member companies. Below is a synopsis of issues
being addressed. Comprehensive activity information can be obtained
from several sources: 1) provided links, 2) the committee minutes
(available by logging in as a member on the GPA website (http://www.gasprocessors.com)
or by 3) emailing your request to jdreyer@gasprocessors.com.
Legislative
and Regulatory Affairs Committee
The
Board of Directors approved the preparation of an Amicus Curiae
brief in behalf of GPA to request a review by the Supreme Court
of Texas of Targa’s appeal of the Apache v. Targa Resources
case. The Appellate Court’s decision will have considerable
impact on the interpretation of numerous existing gas gathering
and processing contracts in the state of Texas that contain provisions
relating to “lost gas” or “unaccounted for gas”
but do not refer to both “lost and unaccounted for gas”.
The brief can be downloaded here: http://www.gasprocessors.com/pdffiles/AmicusBriefFinal.052107.pdf
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) solicited comments on
a proposed new “Natural Gas Processing Plant Survey”'.
It call for the collection of information on the status and operations
of natural gas processing plants for use during periods of supply
disruption in areas affected by an emergency. The comments developed
and filed by the LARAC Federal Issues Subcommittee can loaded here:
http://www.gasprocessors.com/pdffiles/GPA_GasPlantSurveyComments.pdf
The
Rahall bill (HR 2337) is unquestionably bad for many parts of the
energy industry. It would make oil and gas exploration more difficult
on federal lands (sec. 105), enhance best practices requirements
for gas development on federal lands (sec. 106), increase the number
of MMS audits related to gas leases (sec. 202), increase the penalties
for failing to make federal royalty payments (sec. 203), increase
the amount of interest that must be paid related to underpayments
of federal royalties (sec. 212), and it increases surface owner
rights and remedies (sec. 221). The bill is generating significant
opposition from a wide range of energy interests. As bad as it is
for gas, it is worse for air power generators because it would nearly
eliminate that industry. It seemingly would also severely harm the
energy transmission industry. The bill's climate approach calls
for investment in a wide array of alternative energy programs (green
buildings, hydropower, solar power on federal lands, biomass). It
also includes a big carbon capture/sequestration program. The significant
opposition will likely leave most of the controversial parts of
the bill DOA. The first hearing on the bill will be Wednesday of
this week before the House Natural Resources Committee at 10am EST.
Although the date is subject to change, the bill is scheduled to
be marked up in committee on June 6th. It will likely be dealt with
on the house floor when the House takes up energy legislation--the
date of which is unclear but Speaker Pelosi has stated that she
wants energy legislation passed by July 4th.
Environmental,
Health & Safety Committee (EHSC)
Jeff
Gifford of Enogex has been elected Vice Chair of the EHSC. Please
take the time to welcome Jeff and thank him for assuming this leadership
role. Discussions have been initiated for a potential new GPA award
for "environmental excellence" based on a set of reportable
metrics such as energy savings/efficiencies, green house gas reductions
and waste reductions. Additional information will be sent as the
award is developed.
The
Environmental Subcommittee held a meeting in April. An issues summary
document can be downloaded here: http://www.gasprocessors.com/pdffiles/EnvScIssSum04_25_07.pdf
The
Pipeline Safety Subcommittee welcomes new Chair Jeanette Jones,
DCP Midstream. The group has a comprehensive list of issues that
they handle. Their issues summary document was updated in March.
It can be downloaded here: http://www.gasprocessors.com/pdffiles/EnvScIssSum04_25_07.pdf
The
Safety Subcommittee activities will be discussed further in the
next issue of eBrief. It will include a comprehensive report of
the Safety Statistics compiled by the group.
Convention
Information and Awards Presented
The
1500+ Convention Registrants represented 450 different companies
and 18 countries. Below is a list of awards presented at this large
gathering of industry personnel:
- General
Session
- Hanlon
- Mike Panatier
- Katz
- Ken Marsh
- Company
Safety Awards Division I - Enogex, Inc. & Kuwait National
Pet. Co.
- Company
Safety Awards Division II - Chevron USA & Phoenix Park
Gas Processors Ltd
- Company
Safety Awards Division III - Momentum Energy Group, LLC &
Swift
Energy New Zealand Ltd.
- Presidents
Luncheon
- Citation
- Karl Gerdes, Mike Lattal, Sam McVay
- Recognition
- David Kurtz, Craig Wentworth
- GPA
Presidents Award for Safety Improvement Aux Sable Liquid Products
- ConocoPhillips
- MarkWest
Hydrocarbon, Inc.
- Mustang
Gas Products
- ONEOK
Hydrocarbon, L.P.
- UNOCAL
Canada (Chevron)
- GPSA
Safety Awards - Mustang Engineering, SNC-Lavalin GDS, Pearl
Companies
- Best
Annual Convention Paper - William Manning, Rodney Madden,
Gerry Goobie
- Committee
Meetings
- Volunteer
Award - Bob Tuttle, Operations & Maintenance Technical
Section
- Volunteer
Award - Shari Janata, Safety Subcommittee
- Volunteer
Award - Jeanette Jones, Pipeline Safety Subcommittee
- Leadership
Award - Chuck Dehart, LARAC
- Leadership
Award - John Admire, Environmental Subcommittee
Events
Calendar
Events
that are scheduled for GPA, GPA Chapters and GPA Affiliated organizations
can be found on the online calendar located at: http://www.gasprocessors.com/calendar.html.
May, June and July events are listed for your convenience:
May
8
Permian Basin GPA Annual Regional Meeting, Clarion Hotel, Midland,
TX
8
GCC Chapter (Bahrain), Annual Organization Meeting, Bahrain
8
North Texas GPA Spring Meeting and Golf Tournament, Bear Creek Golf
Club, Dallas, TX
9
GCC Chapter (Bahrain), 15th Annual Technical Conference, Crowne
Plaza Hotel, Bahrain
9
Houston GPA Luncheon Meeting, Houston Racquet Club, Houston, TX
11
Midcontinent GPA Spring Clay Shoot, Silverleaf Shotgun Sports, Guthrie,
OK
18
GPA LPG Charity Fund 15th Annual Bowling Tournament and Luncheon,
AMF Willow Bowl Center, Houston, TX
22-24
Europe GPA Conference, Operations and Maintenance, Teeside, United
Kingdom
29
GPAC Q2 Meeting (1/2 Day) Metropolitan Center, Calgary
June
13
Rocky Mountain GPA Chapter Meeting
14
Rocky Mountain GPA Golf Tournament, Racoon Creek Golf Course
20-23
GPA/GPSA Board of Directors, LARAC, EHSC, Annual Program Committee
meetings, Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort at Gainey Ranch, Scottsdale,
AZ
July
23-27
GPA 34th School of Gas Chromatography, Tulsa, OK
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