History of Piping Natural Gas

Natural gas has become one of the most efficient and clean energy resources on the planet, but not without the help of human innovation. The precious natural resource is an excellent energy source for so many different things due to a long history of utilizing natural gas.
For most of the 1800's, the primary use of natural gas was to fuel street lamps, providing light for night transportation. Because there was no real way to transport natural gas over long distances, street lamps were among the few things that could be fueled by gas, but in the late 1920's, piping technology began to advance. Previously, pipelines were poor in quality with bad joint technology, and they were used primarily for transporting water, sewage, or other materials that are not extremely pressure sensitive. In the '20s and '30s, pipeline technology took a turn for the better, and a larger transportation network began. Once a reliable pipeline system was created, the demand for natural gas grew exponentially in residential, industrial, and electric utility markets.
As in all industries, the higher the demand and more money involved, the more regulation needed. In 1938, the federal government passed the Natural Gas Act to regulate the price of natural gas. Lawmakers felt that the natural gas industry would quickly become a monopoly in the absence of regulation. At the same time, the federal government established an incentive program for investing in pipeline construction. This was created to insure the quality of a national network of pipeline. Certain regions were given to individual natural gas companies with exclusive license for pipeline development. This gave companies a vested interest in quickly establishing an efficient transportation system. The Supreme Court later made a ruling to regulate wellhead prices as well in 1954.
Many of these regulations and incentives have changed dramatically due to natural gas shortages in the 1970's. Interestingly enough, the federal government believed that price regulations were stifling companies and putting the industry at risk, and they were right. During the '80s and '90s, natural gas price regulations fall away, introducing more competition into the market. Remarkable, the supply of natural gas increased dramatically, and the prices actually fell. A capitalistic market actually stabilized the industry through dynamic competition. This was also partly responsible for a great deal of technological advances in natural gas location, extraction, and pipeline transportation. This increased efficiency continues to lower the cost of natural gas will the demand continues to support individual drilling and pipeline companies like Western Pipeline Corporation.
In 1990, the Clean Air Act Amendments challenged the fossil fuel industry in general, and greatly increased the demand for natural gas. Natural gas is now utilized by more than a billion customers in the United States. This once simple street lighting fuel has become one of the cleanest most efficient fuel sources on our planet, and it will continue to greatly impact the future history of human civilization.

About the Author: Bob Jent is the CEO of Western Pipeline Corporation. Western Pipeline Corp is a successful, private independent producer of oil and natural gas.