Midstream
Sector of the oil and gas industry
The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and downstream. The midstream sector involves the transportation (by pipeline, rail, barge, oil tanker or truck), storage, and wholesale marketing of crude or refined petroleum products. Pipelines and other transport systems can be used to move crude oil from production sites to refineries and deliver the various refined products to downstream distributors. Natural gas pipeline networks aggregate gas from natural gas purification plants and deliver it to downstream customers, such as local utilities.
Midstream in oil and gas also includes services that help oil and gas producers, such as managing and disposing of wastewater and other oilfield waste.
The midstream operations are often taken to include some elements of the upstream and downstream sectors. For example, the midstream sector may include natural gas processing plants that purify the raw natural gas as well as removing and producing elemental sulfur and natural gas liquids (NGL) as finished end-products.
01Service providers
- Barge companies
- Railroad companies
- Trucking and hauling companies
- Pipeline transport companies
- Logistics and technology companies
- Transloading companies
- Terminal developers and operators
02Midstream in ISO standards
ISO 20815 defines "midstream" in its definition section as:
3.1.27 midstream
business category involving the processing and transportation sectors of petroleum industry.
- Examples: transportation pipelines, terminals, gas processing and treatment, LNG, LPG, and GTL.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Midstream”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Petroleum Pipeline Systems.gif by Unknown author, Public domain
- Natural Gas pipeline systems-from the wellhead to the consumer.png by US Department of Transportation, Pipeline Safety Awareness, Public domain
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
