MIDLAND, Texas — Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick visited natural gas company Ovitntiv at their field office Wednesday.
Craddick was on site to observe weatherization efforts that will ensure their preparedness during future weather emergencies. Following Winter Storm Uri, the state's first natural gas infrastructure weatherization rule was adopted by the commission in August.
The rule seeks to protect gas flow during weather emergencies and requires facility-specific efforts to make sure companies supplying natural gas are prepared to do so under extreme weather conditions.
"I hope that people understand there's been a lot of improvement in the last two years, 18 months from where we are," Craddick said. "I think companies have taken it very seriously from the gas perspective. We are now only the second place in the country that has weatherization or maybe the only one on the continent between us and Alberta [Canada], and we want to be a leader in that space, and I think Texas continues to be a leader to show how our processes are improving and going in the right direction."
Ovintiv says that the company began weatherizing efforts when they moved to the Permian Basin to make sure natural gas production continues, even during bad weather.
"This is something Ovintiv had been doing before there has been legislation in place," Mike Schubert, Ovintiv senior manager of production operations said. "It is how we operate, we need our products to be produced to be able to make our money as a company. We have been winterizing and weatherizing since day one in the Basin, so we didn't need a rule to tell us that we needed to do it, it's just good business sense and it's how we operate our business"
Commissioner Craddick will continue to work with companies to make sure that the best practices are in place to continue the flow of natural gas.