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hi my name is Blaire Linford I work with
the Department of Mines minerals and
energy and today I'm going to tell you a
little bit about compressor stations
once the natural gas well is drilled and
is producing how does the natural gas
get from the well to the furnace in your
home or to other consumers like
factories and power plants
the answer is pipelines imagine the gas
you burn in your stove travels from
thousands of feet underground through
hundreds of miles of pipe to arrive at
your home you can think of the system of
pipelines that carry the gas to market
as the roads that take you on a trip to
the beach similarly small pipe lines
called gathering lines carry natural gas
from the wellhead
to larger trunk lines which carry the
gas from hundreds of wells to
transmission lines where the gas from
thousands of wells can be transported
efficiently for hundreds of miles the
gas at a well is under relatively low
pressure so there's a lot of space in
between the molecules of gas to
transport the large volume of gas from
hundreds of wells at this pressure you
would have to use an enormous pipeline
in order to transport the same quantity
of gas in a smaller pipe the gas is
squeezed to reduce the space between the
molecules this squeezing is accomplished
by machines called compressor
compressors range in size from the size
of a lawn mower up to the size of an
18-wheeler
similar to the on-ramp of the interstate
where you increase your speed
compressors increase the pressure to
enter the transmission line and keep the
gas moving always remember natural gas
pipelines and compressors are carrying
flammable gas under pressure so always
take care around natural gas pipelines
whether they are on the surface or
buried underground keep out of
compressor stations and always call
eight one one before you dig
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