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What is Midstream?
ByPor Anelisse Chanakos
What is midstream? For those who are not familiar with oil and gas terminology, “midstream” is a term used to describe one of the stages of the oil and gas industry operations process. The other two are upstream and downstream. This article will give you more information about the midstream stage.
Also read: Future of the oil and gas Industry
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Midstream Activities
In this sector of the oil industry, the processes that take place relate to transporting the fuel (after it is extracted) and treating or processing this element to be distributed and commercialized.
More specifically, the midstream fulfills a complex and highly important task in the value chain of the oil industry. Below, we will look at the functions that make up this process:
- Gas collection: After the gas is extracted and separated from the wells, it is collected through the pipelines, which are processed continuously and repeatedly, before the oil is sent to the processing facility.
- Natural gas processing: During this stage, the gas is transported to a treatment and processing plant to separate the remaining liquids and water to obtain the purest possible natural gas. Impurities such as carbon dioxide are also removed during this process.
- Compression: At this stage, the processed gas is sent to the compressors, which are essential for the transportation of natural gas. This allows a natural flow that provides the necessary force to keep the gas moving to reach its final destination.
- Fractionation: Fractionation is the process of evaporating different hydrocarbons to separate their components. This is necessary for the gas to be usable in different processes, such as the manufacturing of fuel, rubber, refrigerants, plastics, and others.
We can conclude that the midstream stage plays a fundamental role in the processing of gas for its subsequent commercial use. The entire oil and gas production chain depends on good management of the three stages to achieve a final product that meets market standards. For this, every oil company should have a highly specialized team across different work areas, both the production area and those in charge of the software development of the internal processes, to guarantee that the product is always in the best conditions.
