Technology Focus: Natural Gas Processing and Handling (April 2011)

Abstract

Technology Focus The 2009 reserves of natural gas were approximately equivalent to 82% of the oil reserves, yet gas consumption was only approximately one-fifth of oil consumption. With its relative abundance, clearly, natural gas will continue as an important energy source for some time, as emphasized by the current focus on unconventional gas sources, such as coalbed methane (CBM), shale gas, tight gas, and even potential hydrate production. Even conventional large offshore reserves are developed more economically by use of floating liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) compression instead of onshore compression and very long subsea pipelines. Water handling and reuse is key to the future of the CBM industry, which is progressing toward LNG export. There are shale-gas workshops in Palos Verdes, California (11–12 April) and in Beijing (29 May–1 June) and an unconventional-gas workshop in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan (10–14 July). SPE has an Unconventional Reservoir Technical Interest Group (TIG), which is a useful information exchange, as is the Gas Technology TIG. Other key high-volume gas sources that are only now able to be more fully exploited include highly-sour-gas production, which has many challenges in hydrate inhibition and sour-gas removal. There is a Forum on sour gas in Bali (8–13 May). Much research has gone into low-dose kinetic hydrate inhibition in the last decade, and the next phase will be recovery and reuse of the valuable inhibitors. The 2011 SPE International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry, The Woodlands, Texas (11–13 April) highlights progress in gas-processing-chemical applications. Natural Gas Processing and Handling additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org SPE 131160 “The Use of Huff-‘n’-Puff Method in a Single Horizontal Well in Gas Production From Marine Gas-Hydrate Deposits in the Shenhu Area of the South China Sea” by Gang Li, Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, et al. SPE 133975 “CO2 Storage in Saline Aquifers: Design of a Demonstration Project To Dispose of CO2 Associated with Natural-Gas Fields in the South China Sea” by L. Zhang, SPE, China University of Petroleum (East China), et al. SPE 131663 “Hydrate Formation: Considering the Effects of Pressure, Temperature, Composition, and Water” by J. Rajnauth, SPE, Texas A&M University, et al.