Составьте аннотацию по данному тексту (8-10 предложений). Midstream is the function of the oil and gas industry that provides the vital link between producing areas and the population centers where industrial refining and residential customers are located, Field gathering, processing plants und transmission pipelines are the major assets in the midstream industry. Transportation assets include marine vessels, railroads and trucking fleets. Storage assets also exist throughout this chain. The four key business characteristics of the midstream segment: - is generally a low risk business; - contains regulated components; - assets investments are dependent on health of upstream: - oil and gas market prices affect demand. The business of moving oil and gas around is considered very low capital risk. Historically in most integrated oil companies, midstream segment was considered a small part of upstream and downstream the operation. It wasn't until the 1980s the US companies began spinning off these assets in the publicly traded Master Limited Partnerships or MLPS. The midstream fields gathering and processing sector is relatively free of commercial regulation. However, interstate transmission pipelines and subsequent state and local gaS distribution rates are highly regulated in the US by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (or FERC). Midstream investment can become highly politicized and even subject to executive decision in the US if the proposed infrastructure crosses an international border. Midstream is literally stuck in the middle. It depends on the both healthy upstream supply and strong consumer demand. Without a steady supply of oil and gas, there is nothing to process, transport and store., On the other hand, 14 without demand from downstream commercial, industrial and retail consumers the need to bring these supplies to market is diminished. Let's describe the four major operating components of midstream. The first step in the midstream process is field gathering. Oil and natural gas production comes from thousands of wells. Oil is moved through a "spideweb" of small- diameter pipelines to a central location. Here, a tank volume large enough to efficiently be sent to a refinery by truck, pipeline, barge or rail is gathered. Natural gas is a little different. Unlike crude oil, it cannot be stored at or near the well, A series of smaller diameter pipelines moves it to a central treating or processing facility to remove water and impurities and separate out the NGLS. The natural gas primarily methane can then enter a large diameter transmission pipeline to be moved to end-users. Field processing requires surface units that are designed and installed to: - measure the production rate of oil and gas water from the reservoir; - separate the oil and gas from the wastewater; - remove any impurities; - temporarily store it until it's ready to be moved. Fractionation plants separate the high-valued Natural Gas Liquids, or NGLS, from natural gas production. These NGLS are used as blend components in refineries and as feedstock in manufacture of petrochemicals. And be sure not to confuse NGLS with LNG (or Liquefied Natural Gas). After field processing, treated oil and natural gas is delivered via a huge and complex transportation, pipeline transmission and distribution infrastructure. Natural gas, which flows at a much higher pressure than crude oil is most often transported in large diameter, inter and intrastate regulated pipelines, LNG is natural gas that has been converted to liquid for easier transport and storage. This occurs when the gas is cooled to approximately-162 degrees Celsius or - 15 260 degrees Fahrenheit. Large LNG vessels are used to transport natural gas for international shipments. To transport crude oil, pipelines are also the safest and most efficient shipment method. However, truck and rail are more flexible in terms of timing and being able to ship to alternative and multiple destinations. Today in the US the importance of rail cannot be underestimated. Most US shale oil places do not have access to the existing pipelines. For example, there is very little infrastructure in oil plays such as the Bakken, in North Dakota. Therefore, over 75% of the 1 million barrels a day of Bakken production is moved by rail. Storage for crude oil and refined products is pretty straightforward. Methods include field tank batteries, product bulk terminals, refinery tanks and holding tanks. But natural gas is different. Because of its large volumes and high pressure, natural gas is generally stored underground until it is ready to be transported to market. Depleted gas reservoirs, salt caverns and aquifers are common storage facilities.
Contents
The Reader of Books Mr Wormwood, the Great Car Dealer
The Hat and the Superglue
The Ghost Arithmetic The Platinum-Blond Man Miss Honey
The Trunchbull The Parents Throwing the Hammer
Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake
Lavender The Weekly Test
The First Miracle The Second Miracle Miss Honey’s Cottage
Miss Honey’s Story
The Names The Practice
The Third Miracle A New HomeThe Reader of Books
It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
Some parents go further. They become so blinded by adoration they manage to convince themselves their child has qualities of genius.
Well, there is nothing very wrong with all this. It’s the way of the world. It is only when the parents begin telling us about the brilliance of their own revolting offspring, that we start shouting, "Bring us a basin! We’re going to be sick!"
School teachers suffer a good deal from having to listen to this sort of twaddle from proud parents, but they usually get their
own back when the time comes to write the end-of-term reports. If I were a teacher I would cook up some real scorchers for the children of doting parents. "Your son Maximilian", I would write, "is a total wash- out. I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won’t get a job anywhere else." Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, "It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she’s learnt this term, has no hearing-organs at all."
I might even delve deeper into natural history and say, "The periodical cicada spends six years as a grub underground, and no more than six days as a free creature of
sunlight and air. Your son Wilfred has spent six years as a grub in this school and we are still waiting for him to emerge from the chrysalis." A particularly poisonous little girl might sting me into saying, "Fiona has the same glacial beauty as an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface." I
think I might enjoy writing end-of-term reports for the stinkers in my class. But enough of that. We have to get on.
Occasionally one comes across parents who take the opposite line, who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones. Mr and Mrs Wormwood were two such parents. They had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, and the parents
looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away. Mr and Mrs Wormwood looked forward enormously to the time when they could pick their little daughter off and flick her away, preferably into the next county or even further than that.
It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extraordinary, and by that I mean sensitive and brilliant. Matilda was both of these things, but above all she was brilliant. Her mind was so nimble and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of
parents. But Mr and Mrs Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.