USA Compression Partners (USA Compression) and Callon Petroleum Company (Callon) announced the startup of multiple dual-drive compressors at Callon’s locations in the Eagle Ford shale. The dual-drive compression service offering, which is currently only offered by USA Compression, gives customers the ability to contract for natural gas compression services powered by either natural gas or electricity, providing operators the ability to significantly decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their operations. “We are excited to partner with Callon Petroleum as they contract with USA Compression for compression services using dual-drive compressors. Dual drive is a proven solution for customers and is unique for the industry,” said Eric D. Long, USA Compression’s president and CEO. “With the growing focus on emissions reductions throughout the industry, this is an exciting time for USA Compression as we continue to invest in reconfiguring existing units in our fleet for dual-drive capability. Retrofitting certain of our large horsepower units is a logical, practical, and proven solution which has the potential to drive GHG mitigation. With this service offering, USA Compression is continuing its history of innovation by taking the next logical step in compression: the ability to provide dual-fuel source optionality and thereby operational redundancy in times of disruption, and further serving as a service solution that takes advantage of the continued build-out of the electric grid.”
“We are pleased to expand our commercial relationship with USA Compression by contracting for compression services using this proven, innovative technology,” said Joe Gatto, president and CEO of Callon Petroleum. “The addition of the dual-drive technology in our operations will help us advance our sustainability initiatives, especially in reducing carbon dioxide [CO2] emissions as we expand the field electrification and other system upgrades. We expect dual drive to play an important role allowing Callon to continue to reduce our fuel usage and lower our GHG emissions and overall carbon footprint.”
The concept of a dual-drive compression system is to combine a natural gas-driven engine and an electric-driven motor to quickly and reliably switch from natural gas to electricity depending on operating constraints to compress natural gas. According to USA Compression, the field-proven dual-drive compression system allows companies to decrease GHG emissions and permit their sites for electrical compression, while still having the flexibility and redundancy to switch to natural gas when extreme temperatures — both summer and winter — put a strain on the power grid and utilities charge steep demand fees during resulting power outages. As a result, USA Compression expects customers to realize lower operating expenses, increased reliability, improved runtime, substantially lower emissions of CO2 and methane, the mitigation of interconnect delays and optimized fuel costs.
USA Compression’s dual-drive technology received the 2012 Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) award for Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for emission reductions in the gas compression industry. And, in 2009, dual drive received the Innovative Technologies Award from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This award also focused on emissions reductions in the industry. A 2021 Environmental Excellence Award from the GPA’s Midstream Environmental Committee adds to dual drive’s list of accolades. USA Compression is currently the only provider of compression services using the dual-drive compression technology developed by its parent entity, Energy Transfer.
