The glossary lists terms commonly used in the gas industry and in particular in the Alaska Highway gas pipeline project. The glossary is meant to provide a lay perspective to the term definitions in order to facilitate understanding by those unfamiliar with the terminology.
The glossary represents a work in progress. Please contact us if you have any terms you would like to share or have defined.
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Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA)
The legislation the Government of Alaska passed to encourage the harvesting of the North Slope's natural gas. The legislation provides inducements for building a pipeline, including development funds and a regulatory coordinator. In August 2008, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. was awarded a license to pursue a pipeline under AGIA.
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Bullet Line
A smaller-diameter, direct pipeline.
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Criteria Air Contaminants (CAC)
Emissions of various air pollutants that affect our health and contribute to air pollution problems such as smog are tracked by Environment Canada.
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Established Reserves
The portion of the discovered gas resource base that is estimated to be recoverable using known technology under present and anticipated economic conditions. Includes proven plus a portion of probable gas resource (usually 50%).
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Flaring/Venting
The controlled burning (flare) or release (vent) of natural gas that can't be processed for sale or use because of technical or economic reasons.
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Gas Treatment Plant
Before it can be shipped on a pipeline, natural gas needs to be processed. For North Slope natural gas to be shipped on an Alaska Highway pipeline, it must first be filtered and dehydrated at a to-be-constructed Prudhoe Bay treatment plant.
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Leaseholder
Oil companies do not own the oil or gas they harvest. Instead, they lease the right to harvest the oil or gas from the government, who retains ownership.
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Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
Also referred to as LNG, liquified natural gas has been chilled and compressed for ease and economy in transportation and storage. It has been converted to liquid form through liquefaction: a process that removes dust, helium, water and heavy hydrocarbons (natural gas liquids) and then condenses it into a liquid by cooling to about -160 degrees Celsius. LNG is odourless, colourless, non-corrosive, and non-toxic. It can be transported by pipeline, cryogenic sea vessels (LNG vessels) or cryogenic road tankers. It has been proposed that Alaska's North Slope natural gas reserves be processed as LNG without needing a pipeline into Canada.
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Methane
The principal constituent of natural gas; the simplest hydrocarbon molecule, containing one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.
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Natural Gas
A fossil fuel (hydrocarbon) consisting mainly of methane gas and lesser amounts of other heavier gases referred to as natural gas liquids (ethane, propane, butane, and pentane), and minor amounts of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and hydrogen sulfide. Before natural gas can be used as a consumer fuel, it is processed to remove almost all materials other than methane.
Natural gas is found in oil fields (as associated gas), in natural gas fields (as non-associated gas), and in coal beds (as coalbed methane).
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Natural Gas Liquids
Also referred to as NGL, they consist of heavier hydrocarbons in natural gas that are separated from the gas as liquids. NGL include ethane, propane, butane and natural gasoline.
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Northern Pipeline Act (NPA)
The legislation that awarded Foothills Pipe Lines, now owned by TransCanada Pipelines, access to land along the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway to build a natural gas pipeline.
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Open Access Pipeline
A transportation service that offers service on a first-come, first-served basis to third party customers when capacity is fully committed. In other words, open access allows gas from various gas basins and interested parties to be transported to market.
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Rolled-In Tariff
A tariff method in which the pipeline operator charges the shippers a toll in order to recover the capital and operating costs of providing new additional facilities as part of the transportation service. Rolled-in tariffs help maintain low transportation costs to encourage expansions. They also encourage long-run growth in a supply basin for both additional facilities and fuel.
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Open Season
The period during which the pipeline's operator confirms gas shippers and customers. The operator accepts transport bids from companies seeking gas deliveries carried by the pipeline system. In other words, when the operator accepts bids for space in the pipeline. The open season establishes the size and economics of the pipeline.
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Solution Gas
Natural gas that is found with crude oil in underground reservoirs. When the oil comes to the surface, the gas expands and comes out of the solution.
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Sour Gas
Natural gas at the wellhead may contain hydrogen sulphide (H2S), a toxic compound. Natural gas that contains more than 1 per cent of H2S is called sour gas. About 30 per cent of Canada's total natural gas production is sour, most of it found in Alberta and northeast British Columbia.
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Spills
Spills include accidental release of crude oil, produced water or other hydrocarbon products from wellsites, batteries or storage tanks. These spills can affect land, vegetation, water bodies and groundwater.
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Stakeholders
Industry activities often affect surrounding areas and populations. People with an interest in these activities are considered stakeholders. They may include nearby landowners, municipalities, Aboriginal communities, recreational land users, other industries, environmental groups, governments and regulators.
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Sweet Oil and Gas
Petroleum containing little or no hydrogen sulphide.
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Tight Gas
Gas with very low flow rates. Found in sedimentary layers of rock that are cemented together so tight that it "greatly hinders" the extraction. Getting tight gas out usually requires enhanced technology like "hydraulic fracturing" where fluid is pumped into the ground to make it more permeable. The National Energy Board estimates Canada has 300 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of tight gas in place.
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Tariff
The terms and conditions under which the service of a pipeline are offered or provided, including the tolls, the rules and regulations, and the practices relating to specific services.
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Toll
The price charged by a pipeline operator for transportation and other services.
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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Gases and vapours, such as benzene, released by petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants, plastics manufacturing and the distribution and use of gasoline; VOCs include carcinogens and chemicals which react with sunlight and nitrogen oxides to form ground-level ozone, a component of smog.
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bitumen
Any of various mixtures of hydrocarbons and their nonmetal derivatives. Examples include crude oil or petrolium, asphalt etc.
