Natural Gas, Processing, and Conversion

Posted by alvina on September 27th, 2019

Natural gas is a major part of the energy sector across the globe. This is a natural resource that has recently become even more accessible than ever. It can be used for a variety of different purposes, including offering fuel for heating your home and for cooking food. However, not a lot of people understand the natural gas conversion process or the natural gas delivery process. By reading on, you can learn all about natural gas and the process to get customers their natural gas.

Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is formed when remains of plants and animals have been exposed to very high levels of pressure and heat for thousands of years. It is considered to be a non-renewable resource, but as technology advances there are more ways to recover this resource. Natural gas can be found all over the world, including in Iran, United States, Russia, Canada, and Qatar. Those are just some locations where you can obtain natural gas. Before natural gas can be used, it needs to go through processing to remove impurities then go through a natural gas conversion process. Natural gas liquids are used for a wide variety of purposes, including for heating and cooking purposes.

Raw natural gas comes from 3 different types of wells: gas wells, condensate wells, and oil wells. If the natural gas comes from oil wells, it is typically referred to as “associated gas”. The natural gas from the oil wells can be free gas (meaning its separate from the oil in the formation) or dissolved gas (crude oil). The term “nonassociated gas” refers to gas from condensate and gas wells, which have little to no crude oil in it. Gas wells will generally produce raw natural gas. Condensate often produce free natural gas along with a semi-liquid hydrocarbon condensate.

Currently in some areas, the natural gas demand is at an all-time high. This demand is expected to grow over time, but what’s interesting is that in some areas this price is falling. Gas production is fortunately at a record high as well, especially as coal plants are being shut down. Natural gas is becoming the popular choice for a variety of reasons, but with production continuing to rise there should be no problem in meeting this growing demand.

Natural gas delivery happens from pipeline systems that gather natural gas from processing plants and producing areas. As the natural gas goes from larger pipelines to smaller ones called “mains” then even smaller ones called “service lines” which bring the natural gas to the customers. Since natural gas demand fluctuates on a regular and seasonal basis, natural gas is stored so that they have enough for those periods of higher demand. There are different types of underground storage that keeps gas protected so people can access it when they need it the most. These storage facilities are generally underground in salt caverns, aquifers, and depleted oil or natural gas fields. Natural gas is typically stored in larger volumes in the underground facilities and smaller amounts are usually in tanks just above or just below ground.