The first natural gas wells were drilled in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania nearly 40 years before American crude oil was first discovered by Colonel Edwin Drake near Titusville, PA in 1859.  Wood pipes initially carried gas from those early wells and the first bare steel pipes were laid in 1870 to connect gas wells a distance of five and one half miles to the city of Titusville.

As more natural gas wells were discovered, attempts were made to use wood pipes to deliver natural gas.  Some were deemed successful, but many failed due to the excessive leakage from the pinewood pipes.

The first natural gas pipes in Pennsylvania were made from wood.

In the early 1900s, scientist P. Monnartz demonstrated the anticorrosive properties of stainless steel.  Within the next decade, the first steel pipes with electrically welded seams went into production and steel pipes soon became the industry standard.

Steel pipes became the standard of the industry and were utilized until the 1950s.

Coated pipes provide better protection against aging and are still used in certain applications today.

Then, in the mid-1900s, a special committee of the Thermoplastic Pipe Division of the Society of Plastic Pipe recommended the first three thermoplastic materials for natural gas distribution pipe. And, by 1965, there were more than 9,000 total miles of plastic gas distribution pipe in the U.S. 

Throughout the last 30 years, additional thermoplastic materials have been introduced to the industry – including polyethylene – the current industry standard.   

In Pennsylvania, the current natural gas distribution pipe infrastructure consists of approximately 46,000 miles of underground pipe throughout the Commonwealth.  Main line materials include unprotected, bare and coated steel, cast iron, protected bare and coated steel and plastic pipe.  These facilities have served the Commonwealth’s citizens well for decades and not all pipelines in place currently need to be replaced.  However, some of the natural gas infrastructure is simply reaching the end of its useful life.