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Many people take for granted the energy they use every day. Few realize that a great deal of the energy they use to heat and power their homes and work places is the end product of a large, interconnected delivery system: The midstream natural gas industry.

The midstream natural gas industry is the link between exploration and production of natural gas and the delivery of its components to end-use markets. In North America, the industry includes approximately 1.2 million miles of pipeline, 525 processing plants and other facilities.

Crosstex is proud to serve our important role in delivering natural gas to businesses and utilities that need this vital resources.

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Natural gas is a critical component of energy consumption in the United States. According to the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, total domestic consumption of natural gas is expected to increase by over 2% annually to 35.0 Trillion Cubic Feet (Tcf) by 2020 and will represent approximately 24% of all total end-user energy requirements. The industrial and electricity generation sectors currently account for the largest usage of natural gas in the United States.

Natural gas is described as dry or wet depending on its content of heavy components. These are relative terms, but as generally used, a wet gas may contain five or six gallons or more of NGLs per Mcf, whereas a dry gas usually contains less than one gallon of recoverable liquids per Mcf. Texas accounted for approximately 42.1 Tcf, or 24%, of the proved dry gas reserves and 45.4 Tcf, or 24%, of proved wet gas reserves in the United States as of December 31, 2000. While gas production in the lower 48 states is projected to grow by 9.2 Tcf between 2000 to 2020, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma are projected to have the largest growth (3.2 Tcf) in production during this period.

The natural gas gathering process begins with the drilling of wells into gas bearing rock formations. Once a well has been completed, the well is connected to a gathering system. Gathering systems typically consist of a network of small diameter pipelines and, if necessary, compression systems that collect natural gas from points near producing wells and transport it to larger pipelines for further transmission.

Natural gas has a varied composition depending on the field, the formation and the reservoir from which it is produced. Natural gas from certain formations in the Texas Gulf Coast is high in carbon dioxide. Treating plants are placed at or near a well and remove carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from natural gas before it is introduced into gathering systems to ensure that it meets pipeline quality specifications.

Most natural gas produced by a well is not suitable for long-haul pipeline transportation or commercial use and must be processed and treated to remove the heavier hydrocarbon components and contaminants. Natural gas is processed not only to remove unwanted contaminants that would interfere with pipeline transportation or use of the natural gas, but also to separate from the gas those hydrocarbon liquids that have higher value as NGLs. Natural gas processing involves the separation of natural gas into pipeline quality natural gas and a mixed NGL stream, as well as the removal of contaminants.

Once processed, natural gas transmission pipelines receive natural gas from mainline transmission pipelines and gathering systems and deliver the processed natural gas to industrial end-users and utilities and to other pipelines.