Dr. Robert E. Brooks, RBAC, Inc.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Operations Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 1975

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a model of the production, transmission, and demand for natural gas which would represent the effects of Federal Power Commission regulation in a realistic manner and which could be used as a tool for analysis of alternative FPC policies regarding producers, interstate pipelines, and the allocation of natural gas in times of shortage. This thesis describes the development of GASNET, a mathematical programming model of the U.S. natural gas system, from its theoretical formulation to its implementation on the SESAME mathematical programming system to forecasts of supply and demand for natural gas in 1980. It also describes development of a modified linearization algorithm which is shown to converge to a Kuhn-Tucker point of the non-convex, non-linear program which represents the natural gas system under FPC regulation.

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