Gas Transmission (Gas Pipelines)

Most natural gas reserves are, unfortunately, not in the vicinity of consumers. One method of transporting gas to the places where it is needed is by pumping it through pipelines. Transmission lines cover the long distances and local distribution networks. To overcome the pressure losses in the pipeline, compression equipment is necessary at defined distances distributed over the length of the pipeline. These compressor stations are typically in remote locations, so the compressors are normally driven by gas turbines, since a high degree of standardization is possible for such compression trains. In order to minimize the amount of gas consumed on its way to the consumer, compression efficiency is of the utmost importance.

A different application is implemented in pipeline head stations for long subsea pipelines, with no opportunity to raise the pressure to cover a long distance. Here, the start pressure has to be much higher than for normal pipeline applications. Selection of the compressors to fit the station-specific requirements is thus important and demands design flexibility.

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