NATURAL GAS ENGINEERING

CHAPTER 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL

GAS ENGINEERING

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CONTENTS
CONTENTS

Chapters in this Course:

- Properties of Natural Gas

- Natural Gas Production, Gathering and Transportation
- Gas Flow Measurement
- Gas Well Testing and Analysis (Deliverability Test)
- Gas Flow Performance (Static & Flowing Bottom Hole
Pressure)
- Gas Material Balance and Reserves Calculation
- Natural Gas Processing

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LESSON LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of the academic session, students should be able to:
• Understand the properties of Natural Gas
• Calculate flow parameters(flow rate,pressure) by using
different flow equations
• Understand flow measuring devices and calculate gas
volumes for transportation
• Evaluate Gas well deliverability by applying Gas Well
Testing Methods ( Gas reservoir Performance )
• Determine Flowing Bottom Hole Pressure(FBHP)and
Static Bottom Hole Pressure(SBHP)
• Calculate Gas reserves by using different Equations
• Understand and Evaluate Gas Processing

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 Natural Gas
• Natural gas is defined as gas obtained from a
natural underground reservoir.

• It generally contains a large quantity of Methane

along with heavier hydrocarbons such as Ethane,
Propane, Butane, Pentane, etc.

• Also, in the raw state it often contains a

considerable amount of non-hydrocarbons, such as
H2S and CO2, N2.
• It is also generally saturated with water.

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NATURAL GAS

Definition:
Natural Gas is considered to be a naturally
occurring mixture of
hydrocarbons

[C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C5 , C6,…]

and
non-hydrocarbons
[H2S, CO2, N2, H2O, etc.]

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NATURAL GAS

Natural Gas as supplied by the Oil & Gas

companies ,
usually
 contain 80 to 95% CH4 , with C2H6 , C3H8 , N2 , etc.
 heating or calorific value ranging from 900 to
1200 Btu/SCF.

 specific gravity (w.r.t. air = 1.0) varying from 0.58

to 0.79 .

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NATURAL GAS
Volume of Gas is presented as Standard Cubic Feet

1000 SCF ( 1 MSCF ) of Natural Gas is equivalent to

 58 kg of Wood
 52 kg of Coal
 28 liters of Kerosene
 0.168 barrel of Crude Oil (petroleum)
 285 kwh of Electricity
 0.024 ton of Furnace Oil
 21 kg of LPG

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NATURAL GAS in Malaysia
Natural Gas Consumption by Sectors 1990 - 2007

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 Malaysian Natural Gas Reserve

Malaysia has the 14th largest gas reserves as at January 2008.

As at January 2008, Malaysia's gas reserves stood at 88.0 trillion

standard cubic feet (TSCF) or 14.67 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Malaysia's gas reserves expected to last another 36 years .

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Gas is sold for commercial use.

The gas that is sold is not specified by chemical composition,

but rather by a series of specific properties such as

1.Heating value
2.Delivery pressure, psia
3.Delivery temperature, degree F
4.H2S content, mole%
5.CO2 content, mole %
6.Water content, lbm/MMSCF
7.Cleanliness ( within allowable solid concentration)

These are also known as Contract Terms.

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Following Table gives heating values of various
hydrocarbons

BTU= British Thermal Unit for Energy

SCF= Standard Cubic Feet

Gas Heating Value(BTU/SCF)

Methane (C1) 1012

Ethane (C2) 1783
Propane (C3) 2557
Butane (C4) 3354
Pentane (C5) 4001
Hexane (C6) 4755.9
Heptane (C7) 5502.5
Octane (C8) 6248.9
Nonane (C9) 6996.5
Decane (C10) 742.9
Hydrogen sulfide(H2S) 637.1

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 If H2S and SO2 are consisting in natural gas,
gas processing is necessary.

A natural gas processing plant will remove all

the acid gas compounds, H2S and CO2 and water.

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Thank You

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