Natural Gas Experts

[pilot-werx]

For home use you will not be tapping into a 30inch line.

You have to talk to the local Gas Utility Company.

If it's a transmission line no way you'd be able to tap into it!

Ever done a "Hot Tap" and just borrow some gas??:laughing:

The company who owns the line will allow me to tap into, however it will cost $400k just in engineering...

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Don't feel bad about that. In Oklahoma, a lot of the old oil and gas leases had a clause that allowed the farmer to use gas from wells for free for his house. Since then, the companies have disconnected most, if not all of those "domestic" taps, and provide free propane to the farmer instead. In the long run the cost of buying a tank and propane for the farmer is cheaper than keeping the tap in good working order, the cost of safety monitoring, lawyer's fees when there is an accident, etc.

Local propane dealer told one of his best clients was a major oil company that had replaced all (hundreds) of it's domestic pipeline taps with propane tanks for the farmers that had a free use clause in their lease. Propane tank is much safer than a tap into a high pressure line.

Now in the old days, the big boys told me (never did it myself) that you could take the smallest drill bit you could find, drill into the pipeline and put an open bucket under the hole. The escaping gas would condense, and drip gas would fill the bucket, which in turn could be used to fill your gas tank, thereby leaving more money for beer. I suspect it would take a fair amount of beer to get enough courage to retrieve the bucket when it was full.

 

[Egon]

Sorry about the misinformation on access to the 30 in. line. In the areas I am familiar with there would be no access

Now in the old days, the big boys told me (never did it myself) that you could take the smallest drill bit you could find, drill into the pipeline and put an open bucket under the hole. The escaping gas would condense, and drip gas would fill the bucket, which in turn could be used to fill your gas tank, thereby leaving more money for beer. I suspect it would take a fair amount of beer to get enough courage to retrieve the bucket when it was full.

What you'd have had in the bucket would be propane, butane and pentane. Nowadays all that should be removed at the first processing station the natural gas gets to. There would also be a tendency for a too small hole to freeze up.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Egon, I think we are saying the same thing - no access to a tap today.

 

[Egon]

I always figured Hot Taps were best done by others and watched from a great distance!:thumbsup:

But you sure can get some folks upset by saying you can carry Propane in an open bucket!:thumbsup: