Gas Plant Operator Distribute or process gas for utility companies and others by controlling compressors to maintain specified pressures on main pipelines.
Gas Plant Operator is Also Know as
In different settings, Gas Plant Operator is titled as
- Compressor Technician (Compressor Tech)
- Engine Room Operator
- Gas Controller
- Gas Dispatcher
- Gas Plant Operator
- Gas Resource Control Operator
- Gas System Operator
- Liquefied Natural Gas Technician (LNG Technician)
- Liquid Natural Gas Plant Operator (LNG Plant Operator)
- Plant Operator
Education and Training of Gas Plant Operator
Gas Plant Operator is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Gas Plant Operator
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Gas Plant Operator
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Gas Plant Operator
- Bachelor in Petroleum Technology/Technician
- Associate Degree Courses in Petroleum Technology/Technician
- Masters Degree Courses in Petroleum Technology/Technician
Training Required for Gas Plant Operator
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Gas Plant Operator in different industries are
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers
- Power Plant Operators
- Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators
- Biomass Plant Technicians
- Chemical Plant and System Operators
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
- Hydroelectric Plant Technicians
- Wellhead Pumpers
- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
- Geothermal Technicians
- Power Distributors and Dispatchers
- Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers
- Biofuels Processing Technicians
- Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door
- Biomass Power Plant Managers
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Geothermal Production Managers
- Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas
- Nuclear Technicians
What Do Gas Plant Operator do?
- Monitor transportation and storage of flammable and other potentially dangerous products to ensure that safety guidelines are followed.
- Monitor equipment functioning, observe temperature, level, and flow gauges, and perform regular unit checks to ensure that all equipment is operating as it should.
- Control operation of compressors, scrubbers, evaporators, and refrigeration equipment to liquefy, compress, or regasify natural gas.
- Start and shut down plant equipment.
- Record, review, and compile operations records, test results, and gauge readings such as temperatures, pressures, concentrations, and flows.
- Adjust temperature, pressure, vacuum, level, flow rate, or transfer of gas to maintain processes at required levels or to correct problems.
- Clean, maintain, and repair equipment, using hand tools, or request that repair and maintenance work be performed.
- Collaborate with other operators to solve unit problems.
- Determine causes of abnormal pressure variances, and make corrective recommendations, such as installation of pipes to relieve overloading.
- Read logsheets to determine product demand and disposition, or to detect malfunctions.
- Test gas, chemicals, and air during processing to assess factors such as purity and moisture content, and to detect quality problems or gas or chemical leaks.
- Contact maintenance crews when necessary.
- Change charts in recording meters.
- Distribute or process gas for utility companies or industrial plants, using panel boards, control boards, and semi-automatic equipment.
- Control equipment to regulate flow and pressure of gas to feedlines of boilers, furnaces, and related steam-generating or heating equipment.
- Control fractioning columns, compressors, purifying towers, heat exchangers, and related equipment to extract nitrogen and oxygen from air.
- Calculate gas ratios to detect deviations from specifications, using testing apparatus.
- Signal or direct workers who tend auxiliary equipment.
- Operate construction equipment to install and maintain gas distribution systems.
Qualities of Good Gas Plant Operator
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Gas Plant Operator
- Acid gas compressors
- Adjustable hand wrenches
- Amine treating plant
- Centrifugal pumps
- Chain hoists
- Condensate stabilizer equipment
- Cordless power drills
- Cryogenic plant
- Digital calipers
- Digital micrometers
- Digital multimeters
- Electric boilers
- Fluid separation equipment
- Forklift trucks
- Gas chromatographs GC
- Gas compressor systems
- Gas distribution control valves
- Gas measurement equipment
- Gas pumps
- Gas sampling equipment
- Gas-powered turbines
- Glycol dehydration systems
- Heat exchangers
- Laboratory scrubbers
- Mini hacksaws
- Mole-sieve dehyrdation systems
- Multipurpose screwdrivers
- Nitrogen rejection units
- Personal computers
- Positive displacement PD pumps
- Power generation engines
- Programmable logic controllers PLC
- Punch sets
- Reboilers
- Reciprocating natural gas compressors
- Refrigeration compressors
- Socket sets
- Stepladders
- Sulfur recovery units
- Sulfur units
- Tank farms
- Titrators
- Triethylene glycol TEG dehydrators
Technology Skills required for Gas Plant Operator
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Operating log software
- Quorum PGAS
- SAP software
- Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
- Work scheduling software