Natural Gas Resources
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that consists of methane, propane, butane and ethane, as well as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, helium and hydrogen sulphide. However, the prime component of natural gas is methane, which is the shortest and lightest of all the hydrocarbons. Natural gas can be found in oil-fields, where it is mixed with crude oil, gas fields, and occasionally coal fields.
Natural gas is an organic substance derived from the remains of prehistoric plants and animals that existed millions of years ago. These materials were buried and placed under immense pressure and temperature over a long period of time, which transformed the materials into oil and gas.
Natural gas is extracted from the earth in much the same way as oil is, through drilling wells into underground deposits. By drilling a hole into the deposit, gas is forced out of that hole because of the immense underground pressure. Gas will then flow through a pipeline and up to the ground (or platform), where it is redirected to a processing plant.
Due to its potentially explosive nature, natural gas must be handled with care during processing, whereby it is cleaned to remove various by-products. The result is very close to pure methane. Once processed, the gas is then delivered to storage facilities all over the world.
Natural gas can also be frozen to -260 degrees Fahrenheit. At such a cold temperature, the gas turns into a liquid and only takes up 1/600th of the space compared to its room temperature gaseous form. Known as Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG, it can be shipped using large gas tankers or trucks to storage facilities.
Natural gas resources are spread around the world more evenly than crude oil. Of total proven resources, the Middle East has about 40 percent, Russia and the former Soviet states 32 percent, Africa eight percent, Asia seven percent, North America four percent and Europe three percent. The U.S. has an estimated 1,279.5 trillion cubic feet of resources.
Most of the gas used in the U.S. today is produced domestically. The rest is imported from Canada and Mexico through pipelines, and LNG is imported from Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela and some African countries. North America claims 30 percent of the world’s total natural gas consumption. Since natural gas resources in North America amount to only four percent, natural gas imports to the region are a necessity, particularly as natural gas consumption is expected to increase. However, there are many proven gas resources globally, compared to oil, and the world market for gas is strong. Compared to oil, however, it is still more difficult and expensive to transport natural gas over great distances.
Natural gas is widely considered to be a “clean” fuel, compared to oil and coal. When burning natural gas, oil and coal to achieve equal amounts of heat energy from the three sources, natural gas will produce 30 percent less carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) than oil and 45 percent less than coal. While natural gas installations tend to be quite large, they have very good safety records. Further, a natural gas leak poses no problem to the environment since the gas will simply disappear into the atmosphere.
Natural gas is used in a variety of industry and consumer sectors. Most consumers use natural gas for electricity production or to heat homes.
Sources: NaturalGas.org, U.S. Energy Information Administration, NaturalGasFacts.org, Wikipedia
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, OPEC, BP, Wikipedia