Gas Transportation - Design of High-pressure Gas Pipe Lines

The rapid expansion of the natural gas industry in this country during the past three or four years has necessitated the construction of a number of long and comparatively large diameter high-pressure pipe lines This period of expansion and construction is still at high tide, and the current year will doubtless surpass all prior years in mileage and capacity of gas line installation. The fundamental economics of the business of long-distsrier transportation of natural gas may be briefly and simply stated, although most careful consideration must be given the actual determination and integration of the several more important factors which determine the ultimate success or failure of such a project. Reduced to its simplest form, a sound natural gas transportation project requires: 1. A competent source of gas, where the combination of quantity of gas available, cost of production, and longevity meet the given requirements. 2. A market, reasonably certain to endure in the face of any probable competition, of satisfactory size and price, and having a sufficiently favorable load factor. 3. A cost of installation of pipe line systen and an operating cost such as will, with honest and reasonably efficient management, afford a net operating return sufficient to attract the necessary capital required. In a11 new projects of this kind it is necessary that thehe three cssentials to ultimate success be assured. Hence the necessity of competent surveys of gas supply, and of market, both industrial and domestic. The prudent engineer will allow for "factors of safety" in reaching his conclusions just as he would in the design of a bridge. This paper deals primarily with but one of the major considerations enumerated above, I. e, the economic design of the pipe line system. The "pipe line system" will be considered to include (1) the pipe Iine, and (2) a series of compressor plants along the pipe line for maintaining