THE CLIENT:
SOUTHWESTERN GAS PIPELINE
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Southwestern, a division of Mitchell Gas Services, Inc.,
operates natural gas gathering pipelines throughout Texas. |
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THE SITUATION:
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There was no automation or communications at wellheads.
Old-style chart-recorder data was being manually collected and summarized. |
• |
Compressor sites were not equipped with communications to get information about analog
values, discrete switches, and tank level monitoring back to office on a timely basis. |
“If a compressor goes down and we lose 1MMcfd of
gas that’s flowing in our system, it’s a very costly thing,” said Shotts.
“We lose the gas and, depending on why it may have gone down, there may be
significant repair costs. So, it could be a double whammy.”
“Hopefully we can keep the gas flowing and possibly prevent a compressor shut down
before it happens. We utilize the data collected to perform trend analyses to detect
potential problems before we incur costly repairs.”
-Steve Shotts, director of operations in the North Texas region for Southwestern.
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No means of immediate notification was available to the
office when compressors in the field stopped functioning. |
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Valuable gas flow was lost each time compressors
malfunctioned. |
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Personnel and vehicle costs were extremely high due to drive time necessary to check on
compressor stations. |
THE SOLUTION:
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Bytel installed five Motorola trunking systems
through-out Texas to be used for data and voice applications. 760 Bytel TDM’s provide
a communications link between the wellhead or compressor and the home office. 60 Bytel
RMU’s monitor information at compressor sites.
|
• |
Southwestern is now fully automated at wellsites and is communicating to gas meters on an
hourly and/or daily basis.
|
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Southwestern is now able to perform trend analyses and prevent compressor shutdowns before
they occur. |
PRESENTLY:
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Hundreds of wells are being monitored with the Bytel
system and the same trunking channels are utilized by coexisting voice and data
communications. |
• |
Approximately 500 TDM’s are expected to be added to Southwestern’s systems
during 1998. Bytel is in the process of bringing up a sixth Motorola trunking system for
the customer with a seventh system planned for late 1998. |
For more information or questions, please contact info.bytel@bytel.com
 |
2555 South Shore Blvd.
Suite A
League City, Texas 77573
(281) 334-7171
(281) 521-1058 |
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