Lecture # 01

NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY

Introduction

Jr. lecturer
Kashif Iqbal
wah engineering College
university of wah
 DISTRIBUTION OF MARKS
• Total credit hours = 3+0 =3

• Mid term =20%_____________Marks (80 to100)

• Final term =50% _____________Marks (100)
• Assignments =7.5%_____________Marks(TBD)
• Project =7.5%_____________Marks(TBD)
• Quizzes =7.5%_____________Marks(TBD)
• Class attitude =7.5%______________Marks (7.5)
 Recommended Books

• Handbook of Natural Gas Engineering

(DONALD L. KATZ)1959

• Handbook of Natural Gas Transmission and Processing

(Saeid Mokhatab ,William A. Poe ,James G. Speight)
 Natural Gas
• Natural gas is composed primarily of Methane (CH4)with minor amounts of the
paraffin hydrocarbon family, Ethane (C2H6), Propane (C2H8), and Butanes
(C4H10).
• Non-hydrocarbon constituents include nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide,
helium, and water vapor. Although natural gas occurs as gas under pressure in
porous rock beneath the earth's surface, often it is in solution with crude oil or
condensate. Then it may be described as the volatile portion of petroleum.
• Important background material for engineers in the natural gas industry includes
such subjects as geology and occurrence of natural gas.
• A knowledge of earth temperatures and pressures is required for predicting the
gas content of reservoirs and the rate of delivery therefrom.
 Natural Gas Industry with time
• In 1821 natural gas has served as a fuel in geographical areas immediately
surrounding the gas fields.
• In the 1920s and 1930s, a few long pipelines 22 to 24 in. in diameter operating at
400 to 600 pounds per square inch (psi) pressure were installed to bring gas to
industrial areas remote from the source.

• The greatest expansion took place immediately following World War II when
several long lines were constructed. By this time, advances in welding and
manufacture of pipe permitted pressures up to 1,000 psi and diameters up to 30 in.

• With the new pipelines now in process of construction, essentially all of the
United- States and much of Canada will soon be served by natural gas.
 Subdivision of Natural Gas Industry

1. Discovery and Drilling of Petroleum deposits.

2. Production from Reservoirs.
3. Surface Separation or Processing.
4. Transportation and Distribution.
5. Underground storage of gas near the market.
 1.Drilling and Discovery of Petroleum Deposits
• Drilling and discovery of petroleum deposits in the porous rock of the earth's
crust. A knowledge of geology and geophysics is essential to locate and map
undrilled or partially drilled traps for petroleum.
• The drill is a primary tool for exploration.
• Recent experience shows that, of each 100 wells drilled in the United States, 38
are dry holes, i.e., unproductive, 52 produce crude oil, and 10 produce natural gas
or gas-condensate.
• Knowledge of the properties of reservoir rock that contains the fluids is needed to
understand the behavior of wells.
 2. Production from reservoirs

• Production from reservoirs with or without accompanying liquid hydrocarbons.

In the exploitation aspect of the industry, the technical problems shift from those
of geology to those generally classed as problems in petroleum or reservoir
engineering.

• The prediction of the quantity of natural gas in a given reservoir or the

"estimation of reserves" is important. Knowledge of the rates at which the gas can
be produced efficiently, or the "deliverability," is necessary for calculating
pipeline supplies.
 3. Surface separation or processing
Surface separation or processing plants to recover liquid hydrocarbons from natural
gas and to remove impurities.
The design of separators to remove crude oil or condensate at wells, of natural
gasoline or cycling plants to extract natural gasoline and LP gas, i.e., propane and
butane, of sweetening plants to remove hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, and of
dehydration units, embraces most branches of engineering.
Chemical engineering deals with the material and energy balances, phase
separations, and rate processes of the fluid streams passing through the processing
plants.
4. Transportation and distribution.
• Transportation and distribution of natural gas to market.

• A vast network of transmission lines with associated compressor

stations delivers gas from the fields to the centers of population.

• In many cases, distribution systems in the city previously used for coal
gas are enlarged and converted to the distribution of natural gas.
5. Underground storage of gas near the market
• Natural gas fields often are 1,000 miles or more from the ultimate
consumer.
• Economical delivery of gas requires that the seasonal variations in
load for the heating of houses, space heating, be accommodated ' by
removing gas from storage fields near the market rather than by
variations in pipeline load.
 Natural Gas Engineer
• Requires data on the behavior of natural gas and associated liquids so that be can
predict the properties, such as density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and heat
capacity, needed in the design of pipelines, gas wells, meters, and processing
equipment.
• Vapor-liquid phase separations among the constituents become complex because
of the multicomponent systems involved, and study of these is important
background for process design.
• The flow of gas through porous media governs the recovery of natural gas from
reservoirs and controls the capacity of individual wells.
• Water-hydrocarbon phase relations are specific to the natural gas industry, because
natural gas and water may form solid hydrates above 32°F. Knowledge of the
behavior of natural gas under pressure is basic to engineering in the five areas just
described.
 Basic Engineering Principals
• Engineering may be divided into three broad divisions:
• Concepts,
• Basic data
• Design procedures.
• The student or young engineer unfamiliar with the gas industry will find a
description of the concepts or methods of describing the behavior of natural
gas and processing operations.
• The highest form of engineering is the conceptual design, which can be
made on a rational basis only when a general knowledge of the entire field
is part of the engineer's background.
 GEOLOGY
• Study of the nature of the earth's crust and of its ability to accumulate petroleum
under pressure constitutes an important background for the engineer in the
producing branch of the natural gas industry.

• Geology treats all phases of the earth's history, including the processes by which
reservoirs were created.

• Man is fortunate that many of the processes which produced the earth's crust are
still in evidence to permit a reconstruction of methods by which most reservoirs
were formed.
 Nomenclature in Geology
• Their nomenclature makes frequent use of such terms as.
• geo—earth,
• petra—rock,
• lithos— stone,
suffixes words like
• logy—Science
• graphy —description
 Some Important Branches of Geology
• There are several branches of geology and of related earth sciences
• Physical geology is a study of the processes affecting the earth's surface, such as
action of wind, water, ice, and atmosphere.
• Historical geology endeavors to trace the events in the history of the earth,
including the processes responsible for the earth's crust. The origin of life and the
evolution of plant and animal forms are included.
• Structural geology treats the methods by which the position and shape of the
various members of the earth's crust are determined, and studies forces which have
brought about both the surface and subsurface structures.
• Stratigraphy covers the character, sequence relationship, distribution, and origin
of sedimentary rocks.
 Some Important Branches of Geology
• lithology deal with the recognition of rock according to type and age And
study of rocks to determine their character and constitution.

• Paleontology and micro-paleonlology classify information on life in past

geologic ages by studies of fossils and microfossils.

• Mineralogy, petrography, and petrology deal with the physical properties,

chemical properties, classification, and identification of minerals or rocks
and with their genesis.
Some Important Branches of Geology
• Sedimentation is the process of depositing solids at the bottom of a
fluid, and the term is in frequent use to describe methods of depositing
particles of rock from bodies of water.
• Sedimentary rocks are rocks that have been deposited by this process.
• Essentially all petroleum is contained in sedimentary rock.
 Some Important Branches of Geology
• Geohydrology, or groundwater geology, combines the principles governing water
movement through porous media and the geology of the earth's crust with respect
to the ability of the various strata to conduct water.

• Geophysics is the application of the principles of physics to problems of the earth

The study of the transmission of shock waves generated either from natural
causes, such as earthquakes, or by explosions of dynamite is an example.

• These principles are utilized in the seismic method of searching for structures.
The reflection of elastic: waves at the interface between layers of rock with
different physical properties permits the mapping of the interface.
Some Important Branches of Geology
• Other methods of making physical measurements at the earth's surface
to find the nature of its subsurface employ the magnetic field, the
gravitational field, and the electrical properties of the earth, principally
its electric resistivity. These methods usually depend upon anomalies
or irregularities in the earth's crust.
• Geochemistry is the application of the principles of chemistry to the
study of the earth. The search for petroleum by analyzing soils for
hydrocarbons is considered a geochemical method. The physical
chemistry of molten rock and the chemistry of its disintegration and
recrystallization are included.