Glossary
Gas Plant Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential gas plant operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key gas plant operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in gas plant operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Blowdown
- Venting gas from equipment.
- Compressor
- Raises gas pressure to move it.
- Dehydration
- Removing water from gas.
- Flare
- Burns off excess gas safely.
- H2S
- Toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.
- LEL
- Lower explosive limit.
- LNG
- Liquefied natural gas.
- Meter station
- Measures gas flow.
- NGL
- Natural gas liquids.
- Odorant
- Chemical added so gas leaks can be smelled.
- Operator Qualification
- Pipeline worker certification.
- Pig
- A device that cleans pipelines.
- PSM
- Process safety management.
- Relief valve
- Releases overpressure.
- Separator
- Removes liquids from gas.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Gas Plant Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Gas Plant Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.