Foreign Gas Research Articles

Impact of sustained low oil prices on China's oil & gas industry system and coping strategies

The global sustained low oil prices have a significant impact on China's oil and gas industry system and the national energy security. This paper aims to find solutions in order to guarantee the smooth development of China's oil and gas industry system and its survival in such a severe environment. First, the origins of sustained low oil prices were analyzed. Then, based on those published data from IEA, government and some other authorities, this study focused on the development status, energy policies and the future developing trend of those main oil & gas producing countries. Investigations show that the low-price running is primarily contributed to the so-called oil and gas policies in the USA. It is predicted that national petroleum consumption will reach up to 6.0 × 108 t (oil) & 3300 × 108 m3 (gas) in 2020 and 6.8 × 108 t (oil) & 5200 × 108 m3 (gas) in 2030. For reducing the dependence on foreign oil and gas, the investment in the upstream of oil and gas industry should be maintained and scientific research should be intensified to ensure the smooth operation of the oil and gas production system. Considering China's national energy security strategy, the following suggestions were proposed herein. First, ensure that in China the yearly oil output reaches 2 × 108 t, while natural gas yield will be expected to be up to 2700 × 108 m3 in 2030, both of which should become the “bottom line” in the long term. Second, focus on the planning of upstream business with insistence on risk exploration investment, scientific and technological innovation and pilot area construction especially for low-permeability tight oil & gas, shale oil & gas reservoir development techniques. Third, encourage the in-depth reform and further growth especially in the three major state-owned oil & gas companies under adverse situations, and create more companies competent to offer overseas technical services by taking the opportunity of the “One Belt and One Road” policy. Finally, promote the new energy business and find solutions to turning those oil companies to integrated energy companies.

Using underground gas storage to replace the swing capacity of the giant natural gas field of Groningen in the Netherlands. A reservoir performance feasibility study

In this study we probe the ultimate potential Underground Gas Storage (UGS) capacity of the Netherlands by carrying out a detailed feasibility study on inflow performances of all onshore natural gas reservoirs. The Netherlands is one of the largest natural gas producers in Western Europe. The current decline of its national production and looming production restrictions on its largest field of Groningen -owing to its induced seismicity- have recently made necessary to upgrade the two largest UGS of Norg and Grijpskerk. The joined working volume of these two UGS is expected to replace the swing capacity of the Groningen field to continue guaranteeing the security of supply of low calorific natural gas. The question is whether this UGS configuration will provide the expected working storage capacity unrestricted by issues on reservoir performances and/or induced seismicity. This matter will be of paramount importance in the near future when production restrictions and/or the advance state of depletion of the Groningen field will turn the Netherlands into a net importer of high calorific natural gas. By then, the question will be whether the available UGSs will still be economically attractive to continue operating, or if additional or alternative UGSs will be needed?. Hence the characterization and ranking of the best potential reservoirs available today is of paramount importance for future UGS developments.We built an in-house automated module based on the application of the traditional inflow performance relationship analysis to screen the performances of natural gas reservoirs in onshore Netherlands. Results enable identifying the 72 best candidates with an ultimate total working volume capacity of 122±30 billion Sm3. A detailed sensitivity analysis shows the impact of variations in the reservoir properties or wellbore/tubing configurations on withdrawal performances and storage capacity. We validate our predictions by comparing them to performances of the UGSs currently operating in the Netherlands. Our results show that although Norg and Grijpskerk stand midst the best candidates, their working:cushion gas volume (wv:cv) ratios appear amongst the lowest. We found many other reservoir candidates with higher wv:cv ratios (>1) and working volumes between 3 and 10 billion Sm3 geographically distributed across the Netherlands. Any of the current and future UGSs will have to compete with economically more attractive means of gas import via pipelines and liquefied natural gas. We suggest that only the strategic development of a network of efficient underground gas storages with wv:cv ratios >1, could increase its economical attractiveness. This can reduce future dependence on foreign gas supply for cases of import disruption or shortages during peak demand in winter periods. Future political and economic decisions and societal acceptance will determine the role that UGS will play in the security of supply of natural gas in the Netherlands and Western Europe.

Mechanical enhancement of lightweight ZrB2-modified carbon-bonded carbon fiber composites with self-grown carbon nanotubes

Carbon-bonded carbon fiber (CBCF) composites consist of chopped carbon fibers network by vitreous carbon at the intersections with high porosity, low thermal conductivity and high-temperature resistance. To further enhance mechanical properties of CBCF composites, nanostructured modification can inspire the creation of CBCF composites with tunable mechanical properties. Here, we report an self-grown strategy to prepare carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and ZrB2-modified CBCF composites with a green and single-step process without any foreign gases. The CNTs-ZrB2 was directly self-grown in CBCF matrix from zirconium (Zr) and boron (B)-contained polymeric precursors during thermal pyrolysis. Results showed that the CNTs are uniformly dispersed in the composites with several hundred micrometers length. The CNTs play a significant role on improving mechanical properties of CBCF composites by pulling-out and bridging effect compared with CBCF composites without CNTs.

Laminar Supersonic Boundary Layer Of The Binary Gas Mixture

Theoretical investigation of the properties of a compressible binary-mixture boundary-layer in the framework of local self-similar boundary-layer equations. We have considered the problem, when the foreign gas of various molecular weights – lighter and heavier than air – has been injected into the flat-plate boundary-layer through the permeable model surface. Computations of the binarymixture velocity, density and temperature profiles as well as foreign gas concentration in such boundary layers at different Mach numbers have been performed. It has been found that increase of a foreign gas injection leads to a monotonous decrease of the skin friction and heat transfer coefficients. It has been established that at free stream Mach number M‹2 action of a heavy gas injection from the model surface into the boundary layer is similar to the action of the model cooling. This injection increases the density of the mixture near the wall. As a result, the profiles of the supersonic boundary layer are modified in such a way that the boundary-layer linear stability should be increased with injection of a foreign gas with high molecular weight. This in turn should lead to a shift in position of the laminar-turbulent transition downstream.

Social and Environmental Disclosure Rating in the Libyan Oil and Gas Sector

Over the last two decades, as companies have become more responsive to investors' concerns about the environment and corporate social responsibility (CSR), they have started to provide information about the environmental and social impacts of their activities in their annual reports. The purpose of this study is to explore the practices of environmental disclosure (ED) and the extent of response of companies in Libya's oil industry to these concerns. In addition, the study aims to identify what motivates companies to disclose social and environmental information. To fulfil these aims, data was collected by means of interviews with managers and accountants from oil and gas companies operating in Libya. The findings reveal that the managers and accountants of local and foreign oil and gas companies operating in Libya are aware of and understand the significance of CSR and ED. The study found that the majority of these companies disclose some environmental information in their annual reports or at least have policies to disclose this information in the near future. They disclose three types of environmental information: good, neutral and bad news. The interviewees emphasised the benefits companies gain from corporate disclosure, such as improving the company’s reputation, meeting environmental regulations and satisfying organisations interested in environmental performance. Some also suggested that companies disclose environmental information for economic reasons. On the other hand, the investigation highlighted that the most important obstacle to ED is the lack of environmental regulations and ED standards; in other words, there is no legal obligation for companies to disclose environmental information.

The Severability of Dual-Purpose Leases in the Appalachia

Oil and gas leases have undergone frequent evolution since the Drake Well sparked the first oil boom in the United States. One development evidencing this evolution is the creation of the dual-purpose oil and gas lease. In the years following the Drake Well, many leases only granted lessees the right to produce oil and gas. These leases would extend beyond their primary term only for so long as oil and gas were produced from leased premises, and would terminate after a certain period of non-production per the terms of the contract. As geological formations containing oil and gas in the Appalachian states became depleted in the 1930s and 1940s, it became necessary to pipe in gas from out-of-state to stockpile for the winter months. The inadequacy of pipeline infrastructure at the time necessitated that foreign gas be stored in geological formations depleted of their own gas. As such, lessees sought to amend existing leases as well as enter into new leases granting them not only the right to produce oil and gas, but also the right to store and to protect stored oil and gas. According to their express terms, these leases would extend beyond their primary term for so long as said lands were producing oil and gas, or being used for the storage or the protection of stored oil and gas. These leases allowing for production, storage and protection of storage are known as dual-purpose leases.Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia courts have recently addressed challenges from lessors asserting that production provisions of dual-purpose leases expire following the primary term if the leases are extended into their secondary term only by virtue of storage, and not production. Lessors contend that the production and storage provisions in dual-purpose leases are severable. Courts in Pennsylvania and Ohio have examined some dual-purpose leases and determined that these lease provisions are generally entire, not severable; thus, lessees properly storing and making storage rental payments under such leases retain all of the rights under the lease, including the right to production. A Federal District Court for West Virginia reached the opposite conclusion. This article examines how courts in the Appalachian region have ruled on the issue of severability and also the factors the courts have considered in reaching their conclusions.

Straightforward way to enhance robustness in ultrasonic nebulization-axial view inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry via an additional N2 gas stream

In the present study a low flow of N2 is mixed with the aerosol produced by ultrasonic nebulization (USN) prior analysis using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES). The foreign gas is added for improving plasma characteristics in axially-viewed ICP. By computing the Mg ionic to atomic ratio (plasma robustness) it was concluded that N2 dissociates closer to the load coil when USN is used as sample introduction system. The maximum emission intensity of Mg(II) for pneumatic nebulization (PN) was observed at 11mm from the load coil while it was 8mm for USN, indicating earlier aerosol desolvation, atomization and excitation processes in the ICP. Emission profiles of Ar(I) 415.861nm, Ba(II) 486.601nm and Ba(II) 233.527nm indicated that metastable Ar species are overpopulated in the ICP under the N2 flow. Copper and manganese ionic lines with energy close to 16eV (Ar ionization) were monitored to evaluate spatially dependent charge-transfer reaction along the ICP axis in the presence and absence of the N2 flow. The Cu(II) signal profiles indicated abundance of Ar+ species at low distances from the load coil when N2 was added. On the other hand, differences were not observed at longer distances from the load coil for both plasmas (mixed-gas and pure Ar-ICP). The calculated limits of detection (LODs) for both plasmas had the same order of magnitude. Analysis of certified reference samples demonstrated that the accuracy was preserved by adding the low flow of N2. It was concluded that adding a low flow of N2 to the aerosol produced by USN is a simple way to increase plasma robustness, which is usually lower than that achieved using conventional PN.

Using the same cut-off for sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen multiple-breath washout may not be appropriate.

Recent evidence suggests that results from multiple-breath washout (MBW) using nitrogen (N 2 ) as washout gas are different to those obtained by using sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ). Explanations were mainly related to different MBW equipment and gas properties. We aim to mention a new aspect, namely using the same cut-off in both techniques to determine lung clearance index (usually 2.5% of initial tracer concentration) irrespective of additional contribution of tissue-nitrogen in N 2 -MBW. In a simple model calculation we subtracted 1% tissue-N 2 from the N 2 -MBW in real washout traces from two children, one with cystic fibrosis (CF) and one healthy. This "SF 6 -washout simulation" decreased LCI differently in the children. In the healthy subject 1/40 th (2.5%) was achieved two breaths earlier compared to the original signal and changed LCI from 6.7 to 5.9 (12%), while in CF 1/40 th was achieved 19 breaths earlier leading to a LCI decrease from 13.7 to 10.0 (27%). It would have been required to wash out SF6 until 1/66 th (1.5%) to be comparable to N 2 washout at 1/40th (2.5%), or to stop N2-MBW already at 3.5% of the starting concentration to make both techniques comparable. We show that a basic physiological-mathematical difference between both techniques additionally accounts for different sensitivities and poor agreement between SF 6 - and N 2 -MBW. The best way of adjusting for the contribution of tissue-N 2 needs to be examined in future studies. Thus, despite increasing use in different disease groups, the books on MBW technology are obviously not closed yet.

The effects of South Korea's conditional loan system in promoting foreign oil and gas exploration projects

Since 1983, the South Korean government has implemented a conditional loan system to push private firms to participate in foreign oil and gas exploration projects, ultimately to secure the country's energy supply. In this study, we empirically investigate whether South Korea's conditional loan system successfully contributed to the promotion of foreign oil and gas exploration projects. First, we analyze how the amount of conditional loans has affected the number of exploration projects. Our empirical results show that a 1% increase in loans yielded both a 0.8% increase in the number of total exploration projects and a 0.5% increase in the number of newly launched exploration projects. The economic conditions of the exploration and production business have been insignificantly effective. Second, we analyze how the contribution of conditional loans to total investment has affected the number of exploration projects that have taken place. The empirical results show that the lower the contribution of conditional loans is, the greater the number of newly launched exploration projects. However, the contribution of conditional loans has significantly affected neither the number of total exploration projects nor the number of exploration projects that feature operational responsibility.

The effect of slot height and difference in gas densities for coaxial jets on jet mixing in constrained swirled flow

Experiments were conducted about the effect of height of annular slot on efficiency of film cooling in a tube flow. Nonisothermal nature of flows was modelled by mixing of jets with different densities: air with argon or with helium: the concentration of foreign gas on wall was measured. The influence of nearwall jet swirling and of proportions of densities of gas flows as key factors for laminarization of mixing was considered.

The Effect of China’s Natural Gas Pricing Reform

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the rapid increase in natural gas consumption and huge dependency on foreign gas have forced China to speed up the process of natural gas pricing reform. The price-gap approach is applied to estimate China’s natural gas subsidies, and the results indicate that China's natural gas subsidies increased from CNY 93.341 billion in 2010 to CNY 188.537 billion in 2012. We also apply the input-output model and find that a natural gas price increase of 10–15 percent has less effect on various price indexes than does complete removal of subsidies. Currently, China’s natural gas accounts for a relatively small proportion of the country’s primary energy consumption, and thus gas pricing reform will not have a significant negative effect on the macroeconomy. The government needs to implement fiscal policies such as direct subsidies, tiered pricing for natural gas, and city-gate price discounts to relatively underdeveloped provinces to ensure the smooth implementation of reform.

Critical Review on Competitiveness and FDI Inflow: A Study on the Indonesian Oil and Gas Industry

The objective of this study is to identify and analyse the determinant factors of Indonesian oil and gas foreign direct investment (FDI) and its impacts on the Indonesian competitiveness. The flow of FDI in oil and gas has been increased dramatically in the last five years. However, the distribution of FDI is highly unequal and the competition among countries to attract foreign investors is fairly high. This study is based on quantitative survey of 245 samples from employee that worked in foreign oil and gas companies in Indonesia. Descriptive analysis was presented to explore the overall performance of country competitiveness, as well as the relationship among variables. The finding of this study showed that government, infrastructure, location and human resources have a very strong influence on the Indonesian competitiveness.

Decaying behaviors of V40(TiCr)51Fe8Mn hydrogen storage alloys with different particle sizes

The decaying behaviors of V40(TiCr)51Fe8Mn hydrogen storage alloys with different particle sizes from −60 to −500meshes were investigated systematically in this work. XRD results indicated that particle sizes of the alloys affect little on the phase transformation from Body-centered Cubic (BCC) to Body-centered Tetragonal (BCT) before and after hydrogenation and dehydrogenation, respectively. The hydrogen desorption capacities of the alloys decrease with increasing the number of hydrogen absorption–desorption cycles, but their decaying rates can be obviously restrained as starting particle sizes change from −60 down to −400meshes. Data fitting showed that the variation of the hydrogen desorption capacity has a similar exponential rule to cycle numbers as that of the micro-strain in the alloys. Possible reasons of the capacity decay are discussed. However, a superfine alloy with −500meshes showed much larger decaying rate, which was possibly attributed to the poisoning of foreign gases. Generally speaking, the smaller the particle size, the less the micro-strain in the lattice. Namely, the alloy powders with finer sizes have less micro-stress and correspondingly better cycling stability (within −400 meshes in this work).

Suppression of superradiance from an ensemble of two-level atoms in the presence of foreign gas collisions

I compute the suppression in the superradiant radiation flux from an ensemble of homogeneously-broadened two-level atoms in a slab geometry configuration due to the increase in the polarization transverse decay rate caused by decoherence due to foreign gas collisions. I show that the differences between the total width of the polarization at low excitation with the magnitude of the real part of the eigenvalues and of the dominant and leading modes of the 1-D Lienard-Wiechert kernel are the critical parameters that determine the particular regimes for the superradiant flux dependence on the collision width.

Variations in respiratory excretion of carbon dioxide can be used to calculate pulmonary blood flow.

BackgroundA non-invasive means of measuring pulmonary blood flow (PBF) would have numerous benefits in medicine. Traditionally, respiratory-based methods require breathing maneuvers, partial rebreathing, or foreign gas mixing because exhaled CO2 volume on a per-breath basis does not accurately represent alveolar exchange of CO2. We hypothesized that if the dilutional effect of the functional residual capacity was accounted for, the relationship between the calculated volume of CO2 removed per breath and the alveolar partial pressure of CO2 would be reversely linear.MethodsA computer model was developed that uses variable tidal breathing to calculate CO2 removal per breath at the level of the alveoli. We iterated estimates for functional residual capacity to create the best linear fit of alveolar CO2 pressure and CO2 elimination for 10 minutes of breathing and incorporated the volume of CO2 elimination into the Fick equation to calculate PBF.ResultsThe relationship between alveolar pressure of CO2 and CO2 elimination produced an R2 = 0.83. The optimal functional residual capacity differed from the “actual” capacity by 0.25 L (8.3%). The repeatability coefficient leveled at 0.09 at 10 breaths and the difference between the PBF calculated by the model and the preset blood flow was 0.62 ± 0.53 L/minute.ConclusionsWith variations in tidal breathing, a linear relationship exists between alveolar CO2 pressure and CO2 elimination. Existing technology may be used to calculate CO2 elimination during quiet breathing and might therefore be used to accurately calculate PBF in humans with healthy lungs.

Two components of Na emission in sonoluminescence spectrum from surfactant aqueous solutions

Sonoluminescence from sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) aqueous solutions exhibits Na emission. The spectrum of Na emission was measured as a function of sonication time for a total of 30min at an ultrasonic frequency of 148kHz. The spectral line profiles changed with the sonication time, suggesting that the Na emission consists of two components: broadened lines, which are shifted from the original D lines, and unshifted narrow lines. The intensity of the unshifted narrow lines decreased at a greater rate than that of the broadened lines with increasing sonication time. This effect was enhanced at a higher acoustic power. The shifted broadened lines remained after sonication for 30min. We propose that these quenching effects are caused by the accumulation of gases decomposed from SDS molecules inside bubbles. The CO2 gas dependence of Na emission in NaCl aqueous solutions showed a similar change in the line profiles to that in SDS aqueous solutions, which supported this proposition. The unshifted narrow lines are easily affected by foreign gases. The results suggest that the two components originate from different environments around the emitting species, although both of them originate from the gas phase inside bubbles. The generation mechanisms of the two components are discussed.

Формирование стратегий российских вертикально-интегрированных нефтяных компаний в Черноморско-Средиземноморском регионе

The paper considers the major problems of integrating the RF oil companies in modern international
 transport infrastructure of foreign oil and gas trade. Efficiency of diversification of export strategy and of
 modernizing export capacities strategy are assessed as exemplified by the Rosneft company.

Influence of Coolant Density on Turbine Blade Film-Cooling With Axial and Compound Shaped Holes

Adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness is examined systematically on a typical high pressure turbine blade by varying three critical flow parameters: coolant blowing ratio, coolant-to-mainstream density ratio, and freestream turbulence intensity. Three coolant density ratios 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 are chosen for this study. The average blowing ration and the turbulence intensity are 1.5% and 10.5%, respectively. Conduction-free pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique is used to measure film-cooling effectiveness. Foreign gases are used to study the effect of coolant density. Two test blades feature axial angle and 45 deg compound-angle shaped holes on the suction side and pressure side. Both designs have 3 rows of 30 deg radial-angle cylindrical holes around the leading edge region. The inlet and the exit Mach number are 0.27 and 0.44, respectively. Reynolds number based on the exit velocity and blade axial chord length is 750,000. Overall, the compound angle design performs better film coverage that axial angle. Greater coolant-to-mainstream density ratio results in lower coolant-to-mainstream momentum and prevents coolant to lift-off.

Laser-induced fluorescence as a tool to verify the reproducibility of iodine-based laser standards: a study of 96 iodine cells

We have validated the laser-induced fluorescence technique to measure the quality of iodine cells whose transitions are used as a reference in laser standards for the realization of the definition of the metre. In this technique, the change in induced fluorescence is measured for different values of iodine pressure in the cell: for an iodine cell contaminated with foreign gases the fluorescence is more sensitive to iodine pressure changes than for a pure one due to collisional quenching of the excited states. We have measured the fluorescence parameter Ko for a total of 96 iodine cells, and for each cell we correlated Ko with the measured absolute frequency when the cell is inserted into laser standards at wavelengths 515 nm, 532 nm and 633 nm. We observed that the distribution of the quality of the produced iodine cells has a large dispersion and we believe that this also significantly affects the frequency distribution of the iodine-based laser standards that are used to realize the definition of the metre.

Spontaneous Freezing of Supercooled Water under Isochoric and Adiabatic Conditions

The return of a supercooled liquid to equilibrium usually begins with a fast heating up of the sample which ends when the system reaches the equilibrium freezing temperature. At this stage, the system is still a microsegregated mixture of solid and liquid. Only later is solidification completed through the exchange of energy with the surroundings. Using the IAPWS-95 formulation, we investigate the adiabatic freezing of supercooled water in a closed and rigid vessel, i.e., under thermally and mechanically isolated conditions, which captures the initial stage of the decay of metastable water to equilibrium. To improve realism further, we also account for a fixed amount of foreign gas in the vessel. Under the simplifying assumption that the system is at equilibrium immediately after the nominal freezing temperature has been attained, we determine-as a function of undercooling and gas mole number-the final temperature and pressure of the system, the fraction of ice at equilibrium, and the entropy increase. Assuming a nonzero energy cost for the ice-water interface, we also show that, unless sufficiently undercooled, perfectly isolated pure-water droplets cannot start freezing in the bulk.