NGX-2024 – Drilling the Natural Gas Industry’s Preparedness
Washington – The American Gas Association (AGA) held its second biennial tabletop threat Natural Gas Exercise (NGX) in coordination with the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). NGX-2024 brought together hundreds of representatives from America’s natural gas utilities, natural gas transmission, and local municipalities to test and validate response and recovery plans to cybersecurity and physical security threats that stressed gas control and corporate business continuity. Participants also included federal and state agencies and the electric industry.
“The natural gas system is a vital part of America’s critical infrastructure, and any threat to our systems is a very real threat to our national security. NGX is a critical exercise to stress test our industry’s defenses against cybersecurity, physical, and extreme weather threats – with a goal of consistently improving how we protect our system and ensure reliable service for our customers, communities and the businesses we serve,” said AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert.
“NGX is intended to help us ensure we’re prepared for the worst-case scenario – no matter what that might look like,” said AGA Director, Security and Preparedness Amanda Sramek. “The NGX-2022 taught us a great deal, and this one gave us an opportunity to assess our lessons learned then and since. We’re pleased with the results and know we’re ready to do our part in supporting the reliability of our nation’s most critical infrastructure.”
Ensuring safe and reliable delivery of the energy Americans expect is the natural gas industry’s top priority, and securing our infrastructure is a vital pillar of our commitment to safety. Exercises like NGX are a valuable tool for assessing our preparations for a wide variety of contingencies devoted to preventing service disruptions or restoring service as quickly as possible following a major event.