Opinion ID: 2629624
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Processing facility

Text: [¶ 21] We also rejected Williams's contention that its TEG dehydrator was a processing facility. The term processing facility is not defined by statute, but the term processing is: any activity occurring beyond the inlet to a natural gas processing facility that changes the well stream's physical or chemical characteristics, enhances the marketability of the stream, or enhances the value of the separate components of the stream. Processing includes, but is not limited to fractionation, absorption, adsorption, flashing, refrigeration, cryogenics, sweetening, dehydration within a processing facility, beneficiation, stabilizing, compression (other than production compression such as reinjection, wellhead pressure regulation or the changing of pressures and temperatures in a reservoir) and separation which occurs within a processing facility. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 39-14-201(a)(xviii). [¶ 22] Williams argued that the TEG dehydrator was a processing facility because it performed at least some of the functions ( e.g. absorption) listed in this statutory definition. The Board rejected that argument: The Board also relied upon the testimony of witnesses . . . as to characteristics of processing facilities and the lack of those characteristics in the [Williams] facilities. The common understanding of these witnesses was that there was an identifiable universe of processing plants, such as Whitney Canyon, Painter, and Carter Creek. Clearly, within the industry, the term processing facility has a specialized meaning beyond a collection of disparate pieces of equipment. Williams, ¶ 17 n.2, 107 P.3d at 185 n.2. We affirmed the Board's decision. Like an initial dehydrator, a processing facility is a particular facility constructed for an intended and specialized purpose. The purpose of a processing facility, in simplified terms, is to remove components such as condensate, natural gas liquids, or sulfur from the gas stream, id., ¶ 19, 107 P.3d at 186, which changes the well stream's physical or chemical characteristics and enhances its marketability. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 39-14-201(a)(xviii). The TEG dehydrator in Williams did separate some components from the gas stream, but that separation was only incidental to its intended function of dehydration. The TEG dehydrator was not a processing facility because it was not a particular facility with the intended and specialized purpose of removing these components from the gas stream.