INSTITUTO TECNOLÓGICO DE LA CHONTALPA

Teacher: Julio Cesar de la Cruz Beltrán

Student: Juan Rivera Álvarez
Career: Petroleum Engineering
Control Number: 151160243
10th Module

Unit 1.

THE TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE OF NATURAL.

INDEX

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Natural Gas ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Different forms of natural gas ………………………………………………………………………..….. 4

Transportation of natural gas …………………………………………………………………………….. 5

Storage of natural gas ………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Underground storage of natural gas ………………………………………………………………….. 8

References ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

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 INTRODUCTION

The transportation and storage of natural gas defines natural gas and identified the various types
of natural gas: pipe natural gas, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), etc.
Natural gas transportation from the wellhead (production) to theburner tip (the end consumer)
was explicit.The modes of transportation of natural gas are:
 Pipelines (gatheringlines, transmission lines, and distribution lines)
 Truck.
 Tankers/mariners (LNG vessels)
Natural gas storage plays a vital role in maintaining the reliability of supply needed to meet the
demands of consumers. Historically, when natural gas was a regulated commodity, storage was
part of the bundled product sold by the pipelines to distribution utilities. So, it is economical to
store natural gas in the period of low demand (usually summer being April to October) to the
period of higher demand(usually winter being November to March).

The storage facilities for natural gas are: depleted reservoirs,aquifers, and salt caverns.

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 NATURAL GAS

Natural gas is a mixture of lightweight alkanes. Natural gas contains methane (CH4),ethane (C2H6),
propane (C3H8), n-butane and isobutane (C4H10), and pentanes(C5H12). The C3, C4, and C5
hydrocarbons are removed before the gas is sold. The commercial natural gas supplied to the
customer is therefore primarily a mixture of methane and ethane.

The propane and butanes removed from natural gas are usually liquefied under pressure and sold
as LPGs. Natural gas is found to consist mainly of the lower paraffins, with varying quantities of
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, and in some cases also hydro-
gen sulfide and possibly ammonia.Natural gas contains small amounts of impurities, including
carbon dioxide (CO2),hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and nitrogen (N2).

Because these impurities can detract from the heating value and properties of natural gas, they
are often removed during the refiningprocess and used as commercial by-products. Natural gas
consumption is projected to nearly double between 2001 and 2025, with the most robust growth
in demand expected among thedeveloping nations. Because it is a cleaner fuel than oil or coal and
not as controversial as nuclear power, natural gas is expected to be the fuel of choice for many
countries in the future.

Natural gas combustion is clean and emits less CO2 than all other petroleum-derivate fuels, which
makes it makes favorable in terms of the greenhouse effect. Natural gas is used across all sectors,
in varying amounts, including in industrial, residential,electricity generation, commercial, and
transportation sectors.

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 DIFFERENT FORMS OF NATURAL GAS

Pipe Natural Gas

Also known as natural gas that transport via pipeline, is composed of methane. It istransmitted to
customers to be used as fuel at the power generation and industrial plant.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)

CNG is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. It consists mostly of methane and is drawn fromgas wells
or is obtained in conjunction with crude oil production. An odorant is normallyadded to CNG for
safety reasons.Typically, to use CNG as a transportation fuel, natural gas is taken from a gas
distributionsystem at pressures ranging from 0.3 to 1 MPa, compressed at a fueling station, and
storedin cylinders on vehicles at pressures of about 20 MPa. Currently, the international
NGV(Natural Gas for Vehicle) industry has not set a standardized CNG pressure. At 20 MPa,the
volumetric energy density of CNG is about one fourth that of gasoline. Thus, with allefficiencies
being equal, a CNG vehicle requires a tank 4 times the size of a gasoline tankfor the same driving
range. Liquefying natural gas by cooling it to approximately 400 Kincreases its energy density. LNG
is typically stored at low pressures between 0.07 and0.34 MPa to maintain its liquid state, but LNG
is not available in most markets.

In general, the use of natural gas results in cleaner and longer-lasting engines. Less carbonbuilds
up on spark plugs, in engine oil, and in the combustion chamber. Natural gas hashigher ignition
temperatures than gasoline, which increases the importance of maintaining proper ignition system
operation. The toxic emissions with CNG, without exception, are lower than for any other
hydrocarbon fuel. This is a direct result of the fact that CNG is a single hydrocarbon, 90% methane,
whereas all of the other fuels are a mix of hydrocarbons. LPG is a relativelysimple mix of propane,
butane, and pentane, in contrast to the complex mix that makesup the gasoline and diesel
typically purchased at the service station. Combustion of gasoline and diesel results in emission
into the air of methanol, formaldehyde, aldehydes,acrolein, benzene, toluene, xylene, etc., some
of which are not yet part of any established emission standard but certainly are not beneficial to
peoples’ health.

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 TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL GAS

The efficient and effective movement of natural gas from producing regions toconsumption
regions requires an extensive and elaborate transportation system. Inmany instances, natural gas
produced from a particular well will have to travel a greatdistance to reach its point of use.

MODES OF TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL GAS

There are various means of transporting natural gas from the point of production to thefinal
consumer. That is from the wellhead to the burner tip. The ways are:

Pipeline

The transportation system for natural gas consists of a complex network of pipelines,designed to
quickly and efficiently transport natural gas from its origin, to areas of highnatural gas demand.
There are three major types of pipelines along the transportationroute: the gathering system, the
interstate pipeline system, and the distribution system.The gathering system consists of low
pressure, small diameter pipelines that transportraw natural gas from the wellhead to the
processing plant. Should natural gas from aparticular well have high sulfur and carbon dioxide
contents (sour gas), a specializedsour gas gathering pipe must be installed. Sour gas is corrosive,
thus its transportationfrom the wellhead to the sweetening plant must be done carefully.Pipelines
can be characterized as interstate or intrastate. Interstate pipelines are similarto in the interstate
highway system: they carry natural gas across state boundaries, insome cases clear across the
country. The interstate natural gas pipeline network transports processed natural gas from
processing plants in producing regions to those areas with high natural gas requirements,
particularly large, populated urban areas.

Gas DistributionLocal distribution companies typically transport natural gas from delivery points
located on interstate and intrastate pipelines to households and businesses throughthousands of
miles of small-diameter distribution pipe. The delivery point where thenatural gas is transferred
from a transmission pipeline to the local gas utility is often termed the ‘citygate’, and is an
important market center for the pricing of natural gas in large urban areas.

Tankers/ Mariners

Marine includes vessels required to transport incremental production and specially designed
marine loading and unloading facilities. The classes of marine vessels coveredinclude tankers,
ocean- going barges, and in land transport barges. NGL export facilities and liquefied natural gas
(LNG) bunkering facilities are also included to support marine vessel.

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Tankers transport natural gas, liquefied to reduce its volume significantly, from producers to
consumers. After the natural gas is converted to LNG, it can be loaded onto a specially designed
tanker, transported to a consuming country and re-gasified forcontinued transportation. Natural
Gas is often sourced long distances from consumers. For shorter distances (less than 3000 km),
transport by pipeline is generally used. Over longer distances, it is more economical to transform
the Natural Gas into Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) fortransport.

Trucks

While most of the world's oil and natural gas move by pipeline and tanker, trucks still play an
important role in how we transport crude oil and natural gas liquids. Pipelines can take a long
time to construct, so, many companies, are opting to truck oil to existing established pipelines
until connections at the gathering pipelines are established.

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 STORAGE OF NATURAL GAS

Natural gas, like most other commodities, can be stored for an indefinite period of time.The
exploration, production, and transportation of natural gas takes time, and the natural gas that
reaches its destination is not always needed right away, so it is injected into underground storage
facilities. These storage facilities can be located near market centers that do not have a ready
supply of locally produced natural gas.Traditionally, natural gas has been a seasonal fuel. That is,
demand for natural gas isusually higher during the winter, partly because it is used for heat in
residential and commercial settings. Stored natural gas plays a vital role in ensuring that any
excess supply delivered during the summer months is available to meet the increased demandof
the winter months.

However, with the recent trend towards natural gas fired electricgeneration, demand for natural
gas during the summer months is now increasing (dueto the demand for electricity to power air
conditioners and the like). Natural gas instorage also serves as insurance against any unforeseen
accidents, natural disasters, or other occurrences that may affect the production or delivery of
natural gas. Natural gas storage plays a vital role in maintaining the reliability of supply needed to
meet the demands of consumers. Historically, when natural gas was a regulatedcommodity,
storage was part of the bundled product sold by the pipelines to distribution utilities.

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 UNDERGROUND STORAGE OF NATURAL GAS

Natural gas is usually stored underground, in large storage reservoirs. There are threemain types
of underground storage: depleted gas reservoirs, aquifers, and salt caverns. In addition to
underground storage, however, natural gas can be stored as liquefiednatural gas (LNG). LNG
allows natural gas to be shipped and stored in liquid form, meaning it takes up much less space
than gaseous natural gas. Underground natural gas storage fields grew in popularity shortly after
World War II.

At the time, the natural gas industry noted that seasonal demand increases could not feasibly be
met by pipeline delivery alone. In order to meet seasonal demand increases, the deliverability of
pipelines (and thus their size), would have to increase dramatically. However, the technology
required to construct such large pipelines to consuming regions was, at the time, unattainable and
unfeasible. In order to be able to meet seasonal demand increases, underground storage fields
were the only option.

Types of Underground Storage

As mentioned, there are three main types of underground natural gas storage facilities.Specific
characteristics of depleted reservoirs, aquifers, and salt caverns may be found below. Essentially,
any underground storage facility is reconditioned before injection, tocreate a sort of storage vessel
underground. Natural gas is injected into the formation,building up pressure as more natural gas is
added. In this sense, the undergroundformation becomes a sort of pressurized natural gas
container. As with newly drilledwells, the higher the pressure in the storage facility, the more
readily gas may be extracted. Once the pressure drops to below that of the wellhead, there is no
pressure differential left to push the natural gas out of the storage facility. This means that, in any
underground storage facility, there is a certain amount of gas that may never be extracted. This is
known as physically unrecoverable gas; it is permanently embedded in the formation.

Depleted Gas Reservoirs. This storage facility used a depleted naturalgas well that had been
reconditioned into a storage field. The most prominent and common form of underground
storage consists of depleted gas reservoirs. Having this extraction network in place reduces
thecost of converting a depleted reservoir into a storage facility.

Aquifers. Aquifers are underground porous, permeable rock formations that act as natural
waterreservoirs. However, in certain situations, these water containing formations may
bereconditioned and used as natural gas storage facilities. As they are more expensive todevelop
than depleted reservoirs, these types of storage facilities are usually used only in areas where
there are no nearby depleted reservoirs.

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Salt Caverns. Underground salt formations offer another option for natural gas storage. These
formations are well suited to natural gas storage in that salt caverns, once formed, allow little
injected natural gas to escape from the formation unless specifically extracted. The walls of a salt
cavern also have the structural strength of steel, which makes it veryresilient against reservoir
degradation over the life of the storage facility.

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 REFERENCES

Demirbas A (2002) Fuel properties of hydrogen, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and compressed
naturalgas (CNG) for transportation. Energy Sources 24:601-610

Demirbas A (2006) Global biofuel strategies. Energy Educ Sci Technol 17:27 – 63

Demirbas A (2010), Methane Gas Hydrate

EIA (2009) Official energy statistics from the US Government. Energy InformationAdministration,
Washington

EIA – AEO (2002) Natural gas uses. Energy Information Administration – International
EnergyOutlook, Washingtone

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