Natural gas liquids (NGL) have become a focal point for both producers and investors in the past year due to the continued depressed market for dry gas combined with the ever-increasing price for crude and other liquids.

Because of this increased focus, this year’s Gas Processors Association (GPA) Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas on April 3-6 will feature changes to both its NGL Market Information Committee Meeting and Forum and NGL Business Forum by providing more of an overview of the sector.

“The sessions have been growing in popularity during the past few years as the GPA works to broaden its coverage from strictly gas processing to the midstream business,” Bill McAdam, president and chief executive of Aux Sable Canada, and session co-chair of the NGL Business Forum, says to Midstream Monitor. “This is a very vibrant and growing business, especially with the advent of the NGLs associated with shale gas and shale oil production.”

The NGL Business Forum, which McAdam co-chairs with Phil Nickel, manager, special projects and pipeline development at Cimarex Energy, worked closely with Bill Marks, risk management director, AmeriGas Partners and chairman of the GPA’s NGL Market Information Committee to ensure that the two meetings didn’t cover the same topics. Both meetings are designed to give a better feel for activity throughout the value chain from producer to midstream processor to centralized fractionation/storage to petrochemical producers.

“We felt that the two sessions reached different audiences and that there was an opportunity to reinforce each others’ audiences in a way that coordinated the efforts and avoided any duplication,” McAdam says. “We also hope that by publicizing the sessions and the presentation content in a relevant manner they will attract those who may not otherwise have known about the presentations or weren’t sure if they should take the time to attend.”

McAdam adds that midstream operators must learn more about producers’ pursuit of economic shale gas/NGL or shale oil/gas/NGL developments to help producers develop these new plays and produce these volumes.

“When GPA formed, there was more information flow due to the involvement of integrated oil and gas companies where the drilling people talked to the midstream people. The way things are working now, a lot of the people involved in the midstream and downstream really don’t know what’s going on at the ground level. So what we wanted to do was get more information out to our folks about how some of the changes that we’re seeing will be impacting the midstream and downstream,” Marks says to Midstream Monitor.

His session will focus on the direction that the NGL market is moving with discussions on two of its most challenging, and important, regions: Western Canada and the Marcellus shale. “These presentations are designed to give attendees a better idea of what we’ll be looking for in three to five years,” Marks says.

In addition, the NGL Market Information Committee increased its number of meetings per year from two to four in order to cut down on the amount of committee work done at the GPA convention and offer attendees more lectures.

The NGL Business Forum will feature an overview of shale gas production; infrastructure development in the Midcontinent designed to extract NGLs from gas and process them or move the mix to the USGC; USGC/Conway fractionation/storage developments to produce spec NGL products and transport them to end-users; and petrochemical feedstock demand for olefins as feedstocks.

“We think that the technical, operating and support/service companies as well as the younger entrants into the NGL midstream business are increasingly savvy and want to know about the commercial side of the business. This is why we see strong and growing interest in these types of presentations related to the NGL business sector and outlook,” McAdam says.

The NGL sector has grown in awareness for some segments and workers in the energy industry due to increased production from shale gas and oil plays, which will continue to reshape the flow of NGLs in the decades to come, McAdam says. “New NGL infrastructure and potential reversals of current flow patterns could emerge. We see the existing storage and fractionation centers in the U.S. and Canada, such as Mont Belvieu, Conway, Sarnia and Edmonton continuing to play central and expanding roles.”

Contact the author, Frank Nieto, at fnieto@hartenergy.com.