GPA Midstream President & CEO Sarah Miller highlighted the scale of midstream infrastructure, the importance of the industry, and the relationship between midstream and natural gas liquids like propane in two articles that appeared over the past month in LP Gas magazine.

In December, LP Gas reported on Miller’s remarks at Propane Education & Research Council’s December meeting.

“There are approximately half a million miles of pipeline used in midstream operations across the nation,” Miller told the PERC gathering. “We have nearly 500 processing plants across the nation.”

Miller shared key data about midstream and propane, including that in 2022, 87% of America’s propane came from natural gas processing. That amounted to 78.5 million gallons per day. Crude oil refining produced the other 13% — another 11.8 million per day. The U.S. also produced 4.5 million gallons of renewable propane in 2022.

“That suggests nearly all propane is gathered, processed, fractionated, stored, and transported through midstream facilities,” Miller said.

Miller shared with PERC that it’s time for midstream to dispense with the “invisible industry” description. To ensure long-term viability, the industry must educate the public and policymakers about how energy is made and delivered, as well as midstream’s role in enabling thousands of consumer products.

GPA Midstream’s Let’s Clear the Air campaign, launched in 2022, is one initiative devoted to raising the industry’s profile by providing that education. Click here to visit the campaign website or get involved by following Let’s Clear the Air on social media and sharing its message with family, friends, and colleagues.

In November, Miller shared her more than two decades of involvement with the midstream industry in an LP Gas magazine “Personality Profile.” For 17 years, she was an in-house attorney with Williams, which included leading the company’s legal department as general counsel.

In 2017, she left Williams and went into private practice at the Tulsa law firm Hall Estill, where she represented midstream clients. She served as GPA Midstream’s and GPSA’s outside legal counsel since 2019.

Miller used the opportunity to emphasize midstream’s alliance with the propane industry.

“Propane is recovered by midstream operators as a byproduct of natural gas processing,” Miller told LP Gas. “Most propane is processed and transported by GPA Midstream members, as the organization also defines propane specifications and performs propane research.”

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