What is Natural Gas Conditioning & Processing?

In US Natural gas production is at a historic high production levels. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), In 2015 U.S. produced 74.2 billion cubic feet of dry natural gas per day—an increase of 5.2% since 2014. As of January 1, 2016, there were an estimated 6,879 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of total world proved reserves of gross natural gas.

In O&G sector development of natural gas industry has been very much influenced by physical characteristics of Natural gas. Although oil, being a liquid at ambient temperature, can be contained and transported relatively easily using simple and less-expensive technologies, natural gas is more complex and generally more expensive to store and transport because of its physical nature, which requires high pressures, very low temperatures, or both still and record levels of production, transportation and storage have been the biggest crusher on natural gas prices.

Today’s natural gas prices are lower than what they’ve been in nearly twenty years. In fact, analysts say natural gas prices could soon plunge below $1. But have you thought what’s behind these falling prices. Natural gas has entered entered a new era of matured technologies, thanks to new forms of consumption demanding it more and more.

First was Shale Gas production in US resulting in one of the major factors in record fall in crude price.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates in the Annual Energy Outlook 2017 (AEO2017) that about 13.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of dry natural gas was produced directly from shale and tight oil resources in the United States in 2015. This was about 50% of total U.S. dry natural gas production in 2015.

While natural gas based power generation and petrochemical companies will take a nice slice out of natural gas supply, the largest factor that will outpace America’s state of abundance is the spanking new global LNG market. And thanks to rising global natural gas demand, both the U.S. and America’s natural gas industry are poised to play a massive role in the LNG market. Forbes forecasts America’s excess natural gas supply will make it third largest LNG supplier in the world by 2020, only trailing behind Qatar and Australia. Here are more staggering stats:

• History was made when the U.S. shipped its first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export ever
• It was also the first time the U.S. Department of Energy has allowed oil and gas exports in over 40 years
• By 2025, worldwide LNG demand is expected to reach 500 million tons, which would be twice as much as the 2012 level of 250 million tons
• Since 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas is equal to 21,000 tons of LNG, demand in 2020 will equal around 20 trillion cubic feet a year

Shale gas production is followed by exploration and production of natural gas from the sour fields in rest of the world especially from gulf countries. Sour gas is natural gas or any other gas containing significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Natural gas is usually considered sour if there are more than 5.7 milligrams of H2S per cubic meter of natural gas, which is equivalent to approximately 4 ppm by volume under standard temperature and pressure.

Natural gas from well production has to be treated to remove acid gases (CO2 & H2S) and sulfur compounds so that it meets sale gas specifications. To make the right project decisions for processing sour gas, a detailed life cycle cost analysis should be conducted, where all factors (such as hydrocarbon losses, absorbed hydrocarbon recovery, CAPEX and OPEX) are to be taken into account.

The existing processes are as follows: · Chemical Absorption; · Physical Absorption; · Physico-chemical Absorption; · Physical Adsorption; · Cryogenic Fractionation; · Permeation (membrane); · Direct conversion to sulfur

Two great families of solvents are used for this kind of gas treatment: chemical and physical solvents. 

Physical solvents such as DEPG (Selexol? or Coastal AGR?), NMP or N-Methyl-2- Pyrrolidone (Purisol?), Methanol (Rectisol?), and Propylene Carbonate (Fluor Solvent?) are becoming increasingly popular as gas treating solvents, especially for coal gasification applications. Physical solvents tend to be favoured over chemical solvents when concentration of acid gases or other impurities is very high. In addition, physical solvents can usually be stripped of impurities by reducing pressure without addition of heat. 

Impacts of co-absorption HC losses are less with a hybrid solvent-based lineup, especially when hydrocarbon recovery rate is taken into consideration. Many studies are done for removing acid gases (CO2, H2S) and sulfur compounds (methyl and ethyl mercaptans, dimethyl-sulfide, COS) with mixed solvent Sulfinol (Sulfolane + MDEA + H2O) and DGA, MDEA + AMP solvents and compare it with the solvent MDEA etc.

Also on transportation front two chains currently exist in NG industry. One scheme involves a conventional arrangement in which natural gas is transmitted all of way from field to city gate or consumer facility in high-pressure pipelines. Other one is LNG scheme, which involves liquefaction of gas, its transportation in bulk carriers, re-gasification at point of delivery, and transportation to final users, also through high pressure pipelines. 

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