OKLAHOMA CITY—What’s the biggest challenge today in natural gas processing? It’s not the gas itself or the technology used to clean it and extract the related NGL. Rather, it’s the people—or lack of them—to do the work.

That was a major topic of discussion Nov. 13 in a roundtable focused on “Getting the Most from Gas” during a midstream technical forum, part of Hart Energy’s 6th annual DUG Midcontinent Conference and Exhibition.

“The workforce is a tremendous challenge for us,” said Geoff Hager, owner and general manager of Tulsa-based Big Elk Energy Systems. He described his concern that energy business careers aren’t considered by many high school and college students—even in energy-rich Oklahoma. “There’s a perception that it’s a dirty business. We’ve gone to high school students interested in both four-year and vocational degrees” to discuss career opportunities and the industry’s comparatively good wage scales. The potential for well-paying jobs usually gets students’ attention, he noted.

Big Elk manufactures large-scale pipeline measurement and integrity equipment and serves the energy industry in North America and overseas.

Arturo Puigbo, vice president for sales technology for Linde North America, seconded Hager’s concerns. “We have to focus on the next generation, that’s a challenge for any organization,” he said, noting the average age of energy-industry employees is on the high side of 50. Puigbo emphasized the need to assure the body of knowledge gained over the years by experienced personnel is not lost as they retire and younger employees take their places during the oil and gas industry’s ongoing “big crew change.”

In a related vein, gas processors face supply and manufacturing challenges nearly as severe as the staffing problem, the panelists agreed. Producers want new gas plants built on shorter cycles so they can put new wells on production quickly. That’s difficult, given parts shortages. The Trump administration’s tariff rulings have exacerbated the problem for necessary valves and controls manufactured abroad, the panelists said.

“This is very difficult for us because we are in a business that’s entirely built on relationships,” Hager said. Customers want deadlines met at agreed-upon costs.

Gas processing naturally has its technical issues as well, the panelists agreed. Companies that build NGL extraction plants, such as Linde, have done a remarkable job of improving gas processing technology in recent years to the point that the latest-technology plants can extract nearly 100% of the liquids from a raw gas stream, Puigbo said.

However, plants with that impressive capability tend to be large, some with capacities of 300 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), “and that benefits the larger midstreamers,” Puigbo added. The challenge now is to transfer that technology to smaller, less expensive plants in the 200 MMcf/d size range that are typically ordered by smaller midstream players.

Hager called for improvements to field-level gas chromatography systems that can verify the heat content of gas and NGL streams without time-consuming double checks from central laboratories.

“You want to get the exact dollar value for every cubic foot going through, as well as the exact volume of every cubic foot,” he said. Improvements are necessary, although “it’s not practical to rip out” existing measurement systems so ways must be found to improve the accuracy of equipment already in place.

Any technological and operating improvements “must be tied to the cash-register function, where you make your money,” Hager added.

Paul Hart can be reached at pdhart@hartenergy.com.

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