Calling any job “the most challenging” sounds a bit hyperbolic. However, when one looks across all positions that exist in the energy market, there is no other job in which a multitude of daily responsibilities, deadlines, and stresses all combine into a singular role like that of natural gas scheduler, particularly those who work for a Top 20 or 30 natural gas trading company. 

Though some employees may thrive in such an environment, experience has shown that even for the most highly motivated and skilled resources, the constant stresses of gas scheduling, combined with long working hours without any break, do take a toll; and emotional distress and job burnout is a real and constant risk. Unfortunately, often the job of the scheduler is poorly understood by those not directly involved in it and, all too often, ETRM technology improvements have rarely focused on the needs of this critical group of professionals. 

In this whitepaper, we will examine the daily challenges and commercial exposures inherent in the job and look at how technology and process changes can help reduce commercial risk and provide a greater opportunity for schedulers to focus more on optimization, and less on simply “trying to make the gas flow.”