El Paso Natural Gas Company's First Compressor Transmission Engine
Odessa, Ector County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A landmark tool in man's conquest of energy. This compressor went into use in Culberson County, Tex., on Oct. 1, 1931, and served until 1969, aiding in the rise of the southwest as an industrial empire. This was the first compressor transmission engine at the number one transmission station of El Paso natural gas company, founded in 1928 by Paul Kayser, a Houston attorney. The pioneer transmission station of the El Paso natural gas company was one of the earliest in the permian basin. A cooper-bessemer type 19, this machine is an 800-horsepower horizontal tandem reciprocating compressor engine. Equipped with two 10 1/4-inch by 24-inch gas compressor cylinders, it weigh about 173,000 pounds. It served under load for 152,064 hours, compressing more than 144 billion cubic feet of natural gas in its working lifetime. It conveyed production from fields at Jal, N. M., and in Winkler County, Tex., to city of El Paso and southern New Mexico and Arizona. It was the first machine of its kind in a system that expanded into 22,000 miles of forwarding lines furnishing low-cost energy for industries and households in eleven western states.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This 800-horsepower Cooper-Bessemer compressor engine went to work in Culberson County in 1931 as the first machine of its kind at El Paso Natural Gas Company's original transmission station. Founded in 1928 by Houston attorney Paul Kayser, the company was among the earliest gas transmitters in the Permian Basin. Over 38 years of service the engine ran more than 152,000 hours and moved over 144 billion cubic feet of gas toward El Paso and the Southwest.
Why it matters
The engine represents the pipeline infrastructure that carried cheap natural gas across the arid Southwest, fueling the industrial and residential growth of eleven western states.
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Related people
- · Paul Kayser
Themes & tags
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