Advanced Natural Gas Engineering

At the time of the writing of this book, natural gas provided about 23% of the total world energy supply, and that share would certainly increase. While coal is a solid and oil is a liquid, natural gas is a gaseous- phase fossil fuel. It is colorless, odorless, shapeless, and lighter than air. When burned, it gives off about 1,000 Btu (British thermal unit) per scf (standard cubic foot) and is used for domestic applications such as space heating, cooking and, increasingly, to generate electricity. It only ignites when the air-and-gas mixture is between 5 and 15 percent natural gas. When compared with coal and oil, it burns cleaner, more efficiently, and with lower levels of potentially harmful byproducts that are released into the atmosphere. More important, there are very large deposits of natural gas in the world—far more than oil—Because this resource is difficult to transport, a lot of it has been labeled as “stranded.” For these reasons, there has been a considerable increase in new gas exploration, field development, and production activities. To develop a natural gas field, one of the first important steps is to understand the fundamentals of natural gas. What follows is a summary of basic petroleum geology, natural gas origins, resources, and properties.