How A Utility Views SNG

Abstract

This paper was prepared for the 48th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1973. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgement of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines. Introduction Normal growth patterns established by United States gas utilities were disrupted in recent years by our national energy shortage. The business as usual approach of adding yearly increments of pipeline supply gas evaporated along with the concept that 20 year, long term contracts, were sacrosanct. Almost overnight, gas utilities were forced to turn to forms of Supplemental Natural Gas (SNG) processes to preserve their current markets and establish possible avenues for growth. This expensive new gas has caused many utilities to wonder where the next increment of gas will come from, and what price must be paid. price must be paid. This paper outlines the steps Northern Illinois Gas (NI-Gas) took to study the various alternatives to alleviate the supply problem, and why the Catalytic Rich Gas problem, and why the Catalytic Rich Gas (CRG)-SW, approach was selected. THE COMPANY Four transmission companies supply NI-Gas with a total daily natural gas contract of approximately 1.5 billion cubic feet per day, to the NI-Gas service area which covers over 17,000 square miles in the northern portion of Illinois. The Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America provides more than 75 percent of the total gas supply to NI-Gas which comes from both the Gulf Coast and the Southwest. Changing seasons in our service territory give many jumps and dips to our temperature which means uneven demands on natural gas consumption. NI-Gas, which serve more than 1,200,000 customers, distributes more than five times as much natural gas in winter as in summer. Vast underground storage facilities have solved our winter peaking problems. NI-Gas explored for and developed aquifer type storage reservoirs since 1957.