This article discusses the importance of gas turbines, centrifugal compressors and pumps, and other turbomachines in processes that bring natural gas to the end users. To be useful, the natural gas coming from a large number of small wells has to be gathered. This process requires compression of the gas in several stages, before it is processed in a gas plant, where contaminants and heavier hydrocarbons are stripped from the gas. From the gas plant, the gas is recompressed and fed into a pipeline. In all these compression processes, centrifugal gas compressors driven by industrial gas turbines or electric motors play an important role. Turbomachines are used in a variety of applications for the production of oil and associated gas. For example, gas turbine generator sets often provide electrical power for offshore platforms or remote oil and gas fields. Offshore platforms have a large electrical demand, often requiring multiple large gas turbine generator sets. Similarly, centrifugal gas compressors, driven by gas turbines or by electric motors are the benchmark products to pump gas through pipelines, anywhere in the world.
A Progress Report to Late 1974 on Gas Turbine Operating Experience in the Canadian DDH 280 Class Destroyer
