Has anything been done to winterize the Texas natural gas system?
Natural gas comes out of the ground with water in it, and is piped around wet until it reaches a processing plant that removes water.[1] Everything upstream of water-removal is vulnerable to frozen water.[2] So, where freezing is a possibility, water removal needs to be near the wells, or it's possible to accept some freeze shutdowns and use more downstream storage. Texas used to have a climate where that wasn't a problem.
This is all well understood. There are plenty of natural gas operations in cold climates. So how is Texas doing on improving their system?
Natural gas comes out of the ground with water in it, and is piped around wet until it reaches a processing plant that removes water.[1] Everything upstream of water-removal is vulnerable to frozen water.[2] So, where freezing is a possibility, water removal needs to be near the wells, or it's possible to accept some freeze shutdowns and use more downstream storage. Texas used to have a climate where that wasn't a problem.
This is all well understood. There are plenty of natural gas operations in cold climates. So how is Texas doing on improving their system?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycol_dehydration
[2] https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/17/22287130/texas-natural-ga...