Supplies of Natural Gas in the United States

The total dry natural gas production in the United States during April 1995 was an estimated 1.6 trillion cubic feet, 1% higher than the production during the previous April. However, consumption of natural and supplemental gas in April 1995 was 1.7 trillion cubic feet, 5% above the level in April 1994. Imports of natural gas in April 1995 were 225 billion cubic feet, 10% higher than imports in April 1994. Stocks of working gas (gas available for withdrawal) in underground natural gas storage reservoirs at the end of April 1995 totaled 1.4 trillion cubit feet, 17% above the previous year s level. 

For the 20-yr period, the yearly gross withdrawals changed between 18,659 (1983) and 24,067 (1973) billion cubic feet. 

By viewing the 1994 statistics, the monthly gross drawings of natural gas stayed at a relatively constant level (i.e., about 2,000 billion ft3 per month). 

In general, the total dry gas production is approximately 80% of the gross withdrawals of natural gas. 

Sources 1965-1970 International Petroleum Annual 1975 USEIA, World Crude Oil Production Annual 1980-1990 USEIA, Petroleum Supply Annual 1993 Oil and Gas Journal, Worldwide Production Report Issue. 

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Potential Gas Committee. (1999). Potential Supply of Natural Gas in the United States. A Report of the Potential Gas Committee. Potential Supply of Natural Gas, 1998. Golden, CO Colorado School of Mines. 

Steam-methane reforming is considered an efficient way to get hydrogen from a hydrogen compound. This process has been used by the oil refinery and chemical industries for many years. Currently, there is a plentiful supply of natural gas in the United States and Canada (although that may not be true in the future). This also means a plentiful supply of methane. The pipelines needed to deliver the natural gas to processing plants are already in place. This saves time and money because many new delivery structures do not have to be built. 

Reserves of natural gas in the United States are presently estimated at 223,697 billion cu ft. At the production rate during l 955 of 10,118 billicm cu ft, a 22-year supply of gas is indicated at pteseut. Domestic petroleum reserves, including natural-gas liquids, are estimated at 35,481 million bbl. The domestic petroleum production, including natural-gas liquids, in 1955 was 2,737 million bbl, indicating a 13-year supply at the present consumption rate.< Estimates of the reserves of oil diule range from the... 

The gas reservoirs located ia very deep waters, ia coal beds, and ia tight sands are now more accessible. Fifteen percent of the U.S. gas supply ia 1992 was derived from tight sand formations and 1.4 x 10 of coal-bed methane was added to the proven reserves (22). In 1992, U.S. proven reserves were placed at 4.67 x 10 ia the lower 48 states, and it was estimated that the identified gas resource ia the United States and Canada exceeds 3.4 X 10. Based on the 1992 rate of natural gas consumption, the United States has between 8 and 10 years of proven reserves and a domestic... 

Estimates of the amount of recoverable oil and natural gas in the United States are 113 billion barrels of oil and 1,074 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Worldwide estimates of recoverable oil and natural gas are 1 trillion barrels of oil and 5 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas. These worldwide reserves are expected to supply 45 years of fuel at current production rates with expected increases in demand. However, such estimates do not take into account reserves added through new discoveries or through the development of new technology that would allow more oil and natural gas to be recovered from existing oil and natural gas fields. 

Although nearly any combustible fuel can be used as a source of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis gas, coal is by far the most common. A long-term agreement made prior to construction made available a supply of natural gas at 0.05 per thousand cubic feet for the Carthage Hydrocol Company plant. With greatly increasing demand for natural gas, however, it is unlikely that plants producing purely synthetic liquid fuete will be based tai natural gas in the United States. New supplies of natural gas at the well are currently about 15-20 cents per thousand cubic feet, and the price will inevitably continue to increase. 

Many kilns that formerly were direct coal-fired or producer-gas verticals were retrofitted to natural gas firing with center-burners and after World War II, dramatically improving lime quaUty, kiln capacity, and fuel efficiency. By the 1960s, this improved vertical kiln had lost favor to rotary and other special kilns because of the supply and cost problems of oil and gas in the United States and the spectacular improvement in rotary kiln performance. Many natural gas-fired center burners were permanently closed and dismanded because they could not be converted to coal. However, the reverse occurred in Europe where the extensive oil and gas discoveries heightened interest in the new, advanced vertical kilns. 

The current, global LNG production is almost 120 MTPA provided by 69 liquefaction trains. Furthermore, there are 120 satellite facilities. The distribution is 39 satellite and 55 liquefaction facilities in the United States, and 81 satellites and 14 liquefaction facilities in the remaining countries. Owing to the deregulation of the natural gas industry, the construction of LNG facilities in the United States has increased, and the prevailing role of LNG facilities is changing from peak shaving to base-load for the supply of natural gas year round [7,8],... 

The fiwdstocks used for pyrolysis vary widely and range from light saturated hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, and even ethane/propane blends, to heavier petroleum cuts such as petrochemical naphtha and light and heavy gas oils. In this respect, the situation is clearly in favor of fight hydrocarbons in the United States, a country that is rich in natural gases containing methane as well as ethane and propane, and vHiich still mainly uses the latter two to manufacture ethylene, hi Europe and Japan, by contrast, petroleum cuts traditionally supply the steam cracker feedstocl (Table Zl). 

During the 1977/78 energy crisis, the natural gas reserve/productlon ratio indicated a 12-year supply, and forecasts indicated that natural gas would reach a price of over 10.00 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). This did not occur, and some 17 years later, the United States still has a reserve/production ratio indicating a 8.5- to 9.0-year supply. The price of natural gas in the 1990-96 timeframe has ranged from as low as 0.25 per Gcal ( 1.00 per MMBtu) to as high as 1.13 per Gcal ( 4.50 per MMBtu). 

The principal source of helium is certain natural gas fields. The helium contents of more than 10,000 natural gases in various parts of the world have been measured (9). Helium concentrations of a few are Hsted in Table 2. In the United States, recovery of helium is economical only for helium-rich gases containing more than about 0.3 vol % belium. Most of the United States helium resources are located in the midcontinent and Rocky Mountain regions, and about 89% of the known United States supply is in the Hugoton field in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas the Keyes field in Oklahoma the Panhandle and Cliffside fields in Texas and the Riley Ridge area in Wyoming (11). 

The fear of accidents like Chernobyl, and the high cost of nuclear waste disposal, halted nuclear power plant construction in the United States m the 1980s, and in most ol the rest ol the world by the 1990s. Because nuclear fusion does not present the waste disposal problem of fission reactors, there is hope that fusion will be the primary energy source late in the twenty-first centuiy as the supplies of natural gas and petroleum dwindle. 

Natural gas supply and disposition in the United States in trillions of cubic feet. 

Helium, the second element in the periodic table, has atomic number 2. This means its nucleus contains two protons and has a 2+ charge. The neutral atom, then, contains two electrons. There are two stable isotopes, helium-4 and helium-3, but the helium found in nature is almost pure helium-4. Helium is found in certain natural gas fields and is separated as a by-product. Sources of helium are rare and most of the world supply is produced in the United States, mainly in Texas and Kansas. 

The world use of nuclear power to supply a nation s electricity varies widely by country. France, for example, gets around 75% of its electricity from nuclear power, and several other European countries get over half of their energy from this source. Approximately 20% of the electricity in the United States comes from 103 operating nuclear power plants. Nuclear is second only to coal, 50%, and ahead of natural gas, 15%, hydropower, 8%, and oil, 3%, as a source of electrical energy. Although once hailed by President Eisenhower in the 1950s as a safe, clean, and economical source of power, the US. nuclear industry has fallen on hard times in the last twenty-five years. Nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania,... 

World sulfur supplies are expected to grow at roughly 3.7% per year over the coming decade as compared with 2.6% per year from 1973 to 1980. Sulfur production will grow markedly in the United States, primarily due to increased recovery of sulfur from natural gas processing and petroleum refining. 

On the supply side, sulfur production is now controlled more by the demand for energy through the desulfurization of fuels than by the demand for sulfur per se, and this tendency is increasing. In 1965 involuntary byproduct recovered sulfur amounted to less than 20% of total elemental sulfur production in the United States and Canada, but by 1980 over 60% of all elemental sulfur resulted from refinery and natural gas processing operations. Many future hydrocarbon energy sources (coal, deep gas, heavy oil, shale, etc.) contain considerably more sulfur compared with conventional hydrocarbon fuels, and thus their exploitation will add to the ever increasing supply of by-product sulfur. 

It is therefore certain that research to find improved methods of sulfur removal will continue, with emphasis being given to those products for which consumer interests are most pressing. Recent evidence of diminution of sulfur supplies in the United States, as well as the desire of other countries to minimize purchase of dollar sulfur, may add impetus to the search for new methods of sulfur removal and recovery. The tonnages of sulfur in present production of crude petroleum, excluding natural gas, are given in Table VII. It shows that the potential availability is very high. 

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