Markets natural gas

Whereas there is no universally accepted specification for marketed natural gas, standards addressed in the United States are Hsted in Table 6 (8). In addition to these specifications, the combustion behavior of natural gases is frequently characteri2ed by several parameters that aid in assessing the influence of compositional variations on the performance of a gas burner or burner configuration. The parameters of flash-back and blow-off limits help to define the operational limits of a burner with respect to flow rates. The yeUow-tip index helps to define the conditions under which components of the natural gas do not undergo complete combustion, and the characteristic blue flame of natural gas burners begins to show yellow at the flame tip. These... 

Transportation industry, silicon consumption by, 22 509-510 Transportation management, 25 323 Transportation market, natural gas for,... 

Electric Utility Energy Marketing Natural Gas Pipeline Hydroelectric Plants Wind Power Generation... 

Fuel for electric power generation accounts for about 20 percent of marketed natural gas production. This market segment is extremely price-sensitive and competes directly with fuel oil and coal. Given the current environmental emphasis on reduction of air pollutants, the use of cleaner-burning natural gas is expected to increase significantly in the foreseeable future. 

The total U.S. recovery of natural gas liquids is about 30-35 barrels per million cubic feet of marketed natural gas. The total NGL supply is supplemented by about 200-250 million barrels per year of refinery production, which equates to about 5 percent of the total crude oil charge to refineries. Some of the petrochemical products produced from natural gas and NGLs are shown in Fig. 20.5. 

P.J.A. Tijm, H. van Wechem and M. Senden, The Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis Project - New Opportunities for Marketing Natural Gas , Alternate Energy 93 (Colorado Springs, April 27-30 1993), p.9... 

Fig. 16.3. U.S. marketed natural gas production by year. (Data from U.S. Department of Energy.) ...

Fuel for electric power generation accounts for about 15 percent of marketed natural gas production. This market segment is extremely... 

Utility costs vary enormously. This is especially true of fuel costs. Not only do costs vary considerably between different fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), but costs also tend to be sensitive to market fluctuations. Contractual relationships also have a significant effect on fuel costs. The price paid for fuel may depend very much on how much is purchased. 

This product, given the abbreviation FOD (fuel-oil domestique) in France, still held a considerable market share there of 17 Mt in 1993. However, since 1973 when its consumption reached 37 Mt, FOD has seen its demand shrink gradually owing to development of nuclear energy and electric heating. FOD also faces strong competition with natural gas. Nevertheless, its presence in the French, European and worldwide petroleum balance will still be strong beyond tbe year 2000. 

To prepare gas for evacuation it is necessary to separate the gas and liquid phases and extract or inhibit any components in the gas which are likely to cause pipeline corrosion or blockage. Components which can cause difficulties are water vapour (corrosion, hydrates), heavy hydrocarbons (2-phase flow or wax deposition in pipelines), and contaminants such as carbon dioxide (corrosion) and hydrogen sulphide (corrosion, toxicity). In the case of associated gas, if there is no gas market, gas may have to be flared or re-injected. If significant volumes of associated gas are available it may be worthwhile to extract natural gas liquids (NGLs) before flaring or reinjection. Gas may also have to be treated for gas lifting or for use as a fuel. 

When gases are rich in ethane, propane, butane and heavier hydrocarbons and there is a local market for such products it may be economic to recover these condensable components. Natural gas liquids can be recovered in a number of ways, some of which have already been described in the previous section. However to maximise recovery of the individual NGL components, gas would have to be processed in a fractionation plant. 

About 85% of U.S. adipic acid production is used captively by the producer, almost totally ia the manufacture of nylon-6,6 (194). The remaining 15% is sold ia the merchant market for a large number of appHcations. These have been developed as a result of the large scale availabihty of this synthetic petrochemical commodity. Prices for 1960—1989 for standard resia-grade material have parahed raw material and energy costs (petroleum and natural gas)... 

Na.tura.1 Ga.s Reserves. U.S. natural gas reserves could support a significant methanol fuel program. 1990 proved, ie, well characterized amounts with access to markets and producible at current market conditions U.S. resources are 4.8 trillion cubic meters... 

If 10% of the U.S. gasoline consumption were replaced by methanol for a twenty year period, the required reserves of natural gas to support that methanol consumption would amount to about one trillion m (36 TCF) or twice the 1990 annual consumption. Thus the United States could easily support a substantial methanol program from domestic reserves. However, the value of domestic natural gas is quite high. Almost all of the gas has access through the extensive pipeline distribution system to industrial, commercial, and domestic markets and the value of gas in these markets makes methanol produced from domestic natural gas uncompetitive with gasoline and diesel fuel, unless oil prices are very high. 

Petroleum and Natural Gas. Over 90% of the 428,000 t of caustic soda used in the petroleum and natural gas industry is used to process oil and gas into marketable products, especially by removing acidic contaminants. The remainder is used primarily to decrease corrosion of drilling equipment and to increase the solubiUty of drilling mud components by maintaining an alkaline pH (6). 

X 10 GJ (436 x 10 BTU) of methane was processed into 15, 200 x 10 kg of ammonia (9) and 924 X 10 kg of methanol (3) in the United States in 1990. Natural gas prices generally foUow cmde oil prices in the United States because they compete in energy markets, but natural gas prices exhibit less volatiHty and have been lower in cost on a fuel basis. Historical natural gas and cmde oil prices are shown in Eigure 4. 

EJ = 0.9488 X 10 Btu. Assumes market incentives of 2 /kWh on fossil fuel-based electricity generation, 2.00/10 Btu on direct coal and petroleum consumption, and 1.00/10 Btu on direct natural gas consumption. 

The market penetration of synthetic fuels from biomass and wastes in the United States depends on several basic factors, eg, demand, price, performance, competitive feedstock uses, government incentives, whether estabUshed fuel is replaced by a chemically identical fuel or a different product, and cost and availabiUty of other fuels such as oil and natural gas. Detailed analyses have been performed to predict the market penetration of biomass energy well into the twenty-first century. A range of from 3 to about 21 EJ seems to characterize the results of most of these studies. 

Natural gas upgra ding economics may be affected by additional factors. The increasing use of compressed natural gas (CNG) directiy as fuel in vehicles provides an alternative market which affects both gas price and value (see Gasoline and other motor fuels Gas, natural). The hostility of the remote site environment where the natural gas is located may contribute to additional costs, eg, offshore sites require platforms and submarine pipelines. 

Estimates of the amount of natural gas available are made within the context of definitions and are subject to revision as definitions change, as additional information becomes available, as resources are consumed, or as undedyiag assumptions are altered. These definitions iaclude proved reserves where the resource is expected to be recoverable and marketable usiag known technology and prices probable reserves where a resource has been identified but not completely characterized and possible or potential gas where estimates are based on the available geological iaformation, historical trends, and previous successes. There are variations ia these definitions throughout the world. 

The market value of natural gas Hquids is highly volatile and historically has been weakly related to the world price of cmde oil. During the 1980s, the market value of natural gas Hquids ranged from approximately 60% of the price of cmde to 73% (12). In this 10-year interval, several fluctuations occurred in the natural gas Hquid market. Because of the variabiHty of the natural gas Hquid market, the NGL recovery plants need to have flexibiHty. Natural gas Hquid products compete in the following markets ethane propane a Hquefted petroleum gas (LPG) a C-3/C-4 mix and / -butane all compete as petrochemical feedstocks. Propane and LPG are also used as industrial and domestic fuels, whereas 2-butane and natural gasoline, consisting of C-5 and heavier hydrocarbons, are used as refinery feedstocks. 

Figure 2 shows the acquisition price for U.S. natural gas at the wellhead, together with the acquisition prices of cmde oil in both the international market and the U.S. domestic market (21). On a cost per unit energy basis, natural gas has been priced lower than cmde oil by factors ranging from 1.4 to 3.5 for the period shown. 

Figure 3 provides a comparison of the energy costs in the U.S. residential market for natural gas, electricity, or No. 2 fuel oil (1). The prices of all three forms of energy to residential users have increased for the period shown. Electrical energy has had the largest doUar increase. 

During the period from 1950 to 1992, the worldwide proven reserves of natural gas increased at an average annual rate of approximately 6.7% (3—5). In this same period, worldwide production iacreased at an average annual rate of approximately 5.7% (5) so that the annual worldwide consumption of natural gas as of 1992 was equivalent to approximately 1.7% of the proven reserves. This suggests that the proven reserves, assuming the reserves could be deUvered to the existing world markets, could satisfy the requirements of this market for more than 50 years. However, world population is expected to iacrease and the demand for natural gas is expected to expand both ia areas that are heavily iadustrialized and ia areas where iadustrialization activities are underway. 

Condensable hydrocarbons are removed from natural gas by cooling the gas to a low temperature and then by washing it with a cold hydrocarbon hquid to absorb the condensables. The uncondensed gas (mainly methane with a small amount of ethane) is classified as natural gas. The condensable hydrocarbons (ethane and heavier hydrocarbons) are stripped from the solvent and are separated into two streams. The heavier stream, which largely contains propane with some ethane and butane, can be Hquefied and is marketed as Hquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (qv). The heavier fractions, which consist of and heavier hydrocarbons, are added to gasoline to control volatihty (see Gasoline and other motor fuels). 

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