PETE 461

Natural Gas Engineering

Summer 2010-2011
Dr. alar Snayu

Dr. alar Snayu

 Introduction

Dr. alar Snayu

 Some Info
Lecturer: Dr. alar SINAYU
Course Hours:
o Tuesday 10:40 12:30
o Wednesday 10:40 13:30
o Thursday 10:40 12:30

Reference Books:
o Ikoku, C.U.: Natural Gas Reservoir Engineering, John Wiley and Sons 1975.
[TN880 .I335 1992]
o Guo, B., Ghalambor, A.: Natural Gas Engineering Handbook, Gulf
Bublishing Company 2005. Online Edition is available
o Chaudhry, A.: Gas Well Testing Handbook, Gulf Professional Publishing
2003.

Dr. alar Snayu

 Some Info

Homeworks:
o Homeworks will be given on Thursdays and will be due next Thursday
o Late submission: HWs delivered on day 8 or afterwards means 50% is gone.

Grading
o MT1: 30%
o Final: 40%
o HWs: 30%
o Attendance: 5% Bonus

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 Course Outline
Following will be our outline during this course:
o Definition and components of natural gas
o Processing of natural gas
o Review of phase behavior
o Gas Hydrate
o Water content of natural gas
o Gas reservoir engineering
o Gas flow in porous media
o Deliverability Tests
o Natural gas measurement
o Gathering and transportation
o Gas compression
o Estimation of sandface pressure

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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, isobutane, normal butane, etc.
Also, in the raw state it often contains a
considerable amount of non-hydrocarbons, such as
nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide.
There are some traces of such compounds as
helium, carbonyl sulphide and various mercaptans.
It is also generally saturated with water.

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 Typical Raw Gas Composition
Mesozoic Paleozoic (Kaybob Solution Gas,
(Baldonnel South Canada), Mole%
Canada), Mole% Mole%
N2 0.32 0.94 2.45
H2S 4.37 17.89 0.00
CO2 2.41 3.49 0.11
Methane 85.34 56.53 91.94
Ethane 4.50 7.69 13.85
Propane 1.50 3.38 7.30
Isobutane 0.25 0.87 1.06
n-Butane 0.48 1.73 2.15
Isopentane 0.15 0.71 0.36
n-Pentane 0.21 0.76 0.48
Hexane 0.47+ 1.48 0.18
Heptane plus - 4.53 0.12
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 Processing Natural Gas
Although the processing of natural gas is less
complicated than the processing and refining of
crude oil, it is equally as necessary before its use by
end users.

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 Why Process Natural Gas
Gas that is sold for commercial use (pipeline quality)
is quite different in composition to the raw gas that
is produced

Composition From a Field From a Straddle

Plant, Mole% Plant, Mole%
N2 0.30 0.35
C1 91.63 98.60
C2 5.72 1.05
C3 1.63
iC4 0.29
nC4 0.31
iC5 0.12

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 Processing Natural Gas
In addition to processing done at the wellhead and
at centralized processing plants (field processing),
some final processing is also sometimes
accomplished at straddle extraction plants.
The extracted natural gas is transported to these
processing plants through a network of gathering
pipelines, which are small-diameter, low pressure
pipes.
o There was an estimated 36,100 miles of gathering pipelines in USA in 1999.

The removed associated hydrocarbons are known

as natural gas liquids (NGLs) and they can be very
valuable.

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 Processing Natural Gas
The processing of natural gas involves four main processes to
remove various impurities
1. Oil and Condensate Removal
o Most often done using equipment installed at or near the wellhead.

2. Water Removal
o Absorption with a dehydrating agent such as diethylene glycol (DEG)
o Adsorption with a solid-desiccant dehydration agent such as activated
alumina or a granular silica

3. Separation of Natural Gas Liquids

o Absorption method using an absorbing oil (effective for heavier
hydrocarbons)
o Cryogenic expander process (cooling the gas stream)

4. Sulfur and Carbon Dioxide Removal

o Sweetening by absorption with amine solutions such as
monoethanolamine (MEA)

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 Chemical Composition of Natural Gas
Virtually hundreds of different compounds may be present in
natural gas in varying amounts.
The major components in most natural gases are
o paraffin hydrocarbons (alkanes) (CnH2n+2)
Methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane, hexane, etc.

o olefin hydrocarbons (alkenes), (CnH2n)

Ethylene, propylene

o naphthenic hydrocarbons (cycloalkanes), (CnH2(n+1-g))

Cyclopropane, cyclobutane

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Chemical Composition of Natural Gas
The major components in most natural gases are
o Mercaptans (thiols) (RCH), and
Methanethiol (methly mercaptan)
Note: R represents an alkyl group

o non-hydrocarbon compounds
Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide,

water vapor, carbonyl sulfide

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 Hydrocarbon components
Methane (CH4 or C1)
o This is the prime compound in natural gas
o Gross heating value: 1010 BTU/scf

Ethane (C2H6 or C2)

o Second largest component of all natural gases.
o It has a considerably higher gross heating value than
methane: 1769 BTU/scf

Propane (C3H8 or C3)

o If there is much present in the raw gas, say 2.0% or greater,
then it is generally more economical to absorb it.

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 Hydrocarbon components
n-Butane (C4H10 or nC4)
o This compound is normally extracted as a liquid.
o It is generally used as a blending agent in motor gasoline.
iso-Butane (C4H10 or iC4)
o This compound is normally extracted as a liquid.
o It is used as a component in the manufacture of high
octane gasoline.
Pentanes and heavier (C5H12 or C5+)
o These compounds appear in pipeline gas only in small
quantities.
o They are separated and are the primary compound in
condensate.
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 Non-hydrocarbon components
Nitrogen (N2)
o This compound is quite inert and does not contribute to the
gas in any way.

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

o It does not support combustion,
o The normal maximum acceptable concentration in
pipeline gas is 2%.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S)

o This compound is the cause of sourness in natural gas,
o It is one of the most dangerous of industrial gases.

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 Non-hydrocarbon components
Carbonyl sulfide (COS)
o This is a compound that often appears in raw gases with
high concentration of H2S in them.
o It has the undesirable property of forming nonregenerable
compounds with one of the mostly used sweetening
agents.

Mercaptans (CH3SH methly mercaptan or C2H5SH

ethyl mercaptan)
o These are very foul smelling compounds that, in very small
quantities can be used as gas odorants.

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