The Usage of Natural Gas - Essay Example

Natural gas What is natural Gas? Natural gas, also called marsh or swamp gas in older texts and more recently known as landfill gas is a viable, abundant, low cost, low emission naturally occurring gaseous fossil fuel found in oil fields, natural gas fields and coal beds and used as an energy source in numerous economic sectors across the world. Technically, it is a mixture of various alkanes’ hydrocarbons primarily of saturated light paraffins such as methane and ethane, both of which are gaseous under atmospheric conditions. The mixture also may contain other heaver hydrocarbons, such as propane, butane, pentane, and hexane and few other gases such as nitrogen, carbon monoxide carbon dioxide etc. In natural gas reservoirs beneath the surface of the earth even the heavier hydrocarbons occur for the most part in gaseous form because of the higher pressures. These heavier hydrocarbons usually liquefy at the surface at normal atmospheric conditions and are produced separately as natural gas liquids (NGLs), either in field separators or in gas processing plants (Speight, 3). How it was discovered and when did they discover it? The discovery of natural gas dates back from ancient times in the Middle East. During that times, there was not any clear understanding about the existence of natural gas and its presence was somewhat of a mystery to man. Such mysteries were attributed to occasional incidents of sudden lightning strikes that would ignite natural gas escaping from under the earth’s crust resulting fire coming from the earth. The value of natural gas as an energy was first recognized in China about 900 BC. In 211 BC, Chinese drilled the first known natural gas well. Further a step ahead they transported the crude gas through bamboo shoots to near sea shore, where it was used to distilled sea water to make it suitable for drinking. In early 1626, a French explorer first times discovered and identified natives igniting gases in America that were seeping into and around Lake Erie. In 1821 in Fredonia, United States, a massive escape of gas was observed in form of bubbles rising to the surface from a creek and an American industrialist and financier William Hart, considered as America’s “father of natural gas,” dug there the first natural gas well in North America. In Europe, natural gas was first come to known around 1659 when it was discovered in Great Britain. The last century technological development probed that major natural gas reservoirs are laying often in conjunction with crude oil, hence in recent times, major natural gas reservoirs were discovered as a result of searching for crude oil (Speight, 9). The usage of natural gas Since the discovery of natural gas as a heat source by the Chinese about two thousand years ago, the use of natural gas as an energy source has increased tremendously and presently, natural gas is about one quarter of the energy resources of the world (Speight, 21) as shown in fig. 1. Fig. 1 The main use of natural gas is combustion. The heat generated due to burning of gas is either directly or indirectly used for various energy purposes. In direct heating, natural gas is utilized both in residential and commercial heating and cooking purposes. Indirectly the heat generated due to natural gas combustion is used to generate electricity by using gas fired generators, steam turbines, gas turbines and combined cycle power generation units. Another important indirect use of heat generated due to combustion of natural gas is its use as transportation fuel by compressing natural gas (CNG) to less than 1% of its volume at standard atmospheric pressure (Natural gas report, 3). Except these natural gas is used in many industrial applications including ore smelting, minerals processing, drying and dehumidification, glass smelting, food processing, waste treatment and incineration, and fueling industrial boilers. Also natural gas is an essential feedstock for number of for industrial products such as methanol, fertilizers, plastics and pharmaceutical products (Natural gas report, 4). Which countries supply and buy natural gas?   There is an abundance of natural gas across the globe. However, this abundance becomes complicated by the fact that no one really knows exactly how much natural gas exists until it is extracted. Measuring natural gas in the ground is no easy job, and it involves a great deal of inference and estimation. Russia, Iran, Quarter, Saudi Arabia, UAE and USA possess two thirds of the world’s gas proven reserves (Kidnay, and Parrish 3). Russia has the largest natural gas reserves amount 44,800 billion cu m. Iran and Quarter with proven natural gas reserves amount 29,610 billion cu m and 25,370 billion cu m are at 2nd and 3rd place. In terms of production and consumption USA with 611.00 billion cu m production and 683.30 billion cu m consumption is at top positions. Russia with production capacity of 588.90 billion cu m and with a consumption of 414.10 billion cu m is at 2nd place while European Union is at 3rd place. Russia provides nearly a quarter of the natural gas used in the European Union. Much of that is transported via pipelines in Ukraine and has resulted in a number of disputes between the two countries (McFarlin 1). The major natural gas exporting countries includes Russia, Quarter, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. Russia with a total export of more than 6,466 bcf is at top position while Quarter having more than 2,408 bcf is at 2nd place while Algeria is at 3rd place with an export amount of more than 1,860 bcf. Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago are at 4th and 5th place respectively. These eleven major gas exporting countries has a Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), also referred to as gas OPEC, is a nascent cartel organization based in Doha Qatar (Ratner 9). Also the world’s five major importers of natural gas are United States (105.8 billion cu m), Germany (99.63 billion cu m), Japan (98.01 billion cu m), Italy (70.2 billion cu m), and United Kingdom (53.63 billion cu m). Except these five main importers countries there are 15 additional countries with natural gas import range of 12.15 billion cu m to 46.2 billion cu m (Natural gas – imports, n. d.). When would the natural gas be available to human kind, until when is it available. Natural gas contributes about one quarter of the energy resources of the world. With rapid technological development and expansion of both urban and rural areas the demand of energy is increasing and we are running out of most of natural energy resources including natural gas. Statistics show that worlds major natural gas reserves are located in the Middle East (41%). The Europe & Eurasia has 34% natural gas reservoirs while the Russian Federation has 30.5`%, Iran 14.8% , followed by Iran with 14.8% and Qatar with 9.2%. Being the lion share of natural gas it has been estimated that in Middle East the natural gas reservoirs will be enough for next two centuries. In Europe & Eurasia, Africa and South & Central America the natural gas reservoir will expire in next half a century. The situation in North America is quite alarming as all natural gas reservoirs will expire in next ten to twelve years’ time. On country basis most of gulf countries and Iran has enough natural gas reservoirs for next two centuries. Also in Africa Nigeria can enjoy the use of natural gas for more than hundred years. Similarly in Latin America Venezuela has abundant of natural gas resources for next more than a century. Russian natural gas reservoirs will be sufficient for next eight to nine decades (Are We Running out of Oil and Gas? n. d.). Works Cited Speight, James G. Natural Gas A Basic Handbook. Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing Company 2007. Print. Kidnay, Arthur J., and Parrish, William R. Fundamentals of Natural Gas Processing. Boca Raton: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 2006. Print Ratner, Michael. “Global Natural Gas: A Growing Resource.” Congressional Research Service. 22 December, 2010. Print. “Natural Gas Report.”   Australian Pipeline Industry Association.  January 2009. Print.   “Natural gas – imports”. indexmundi. IndexMundi, n. d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. McFarlin, Michael J. Top 10 natural gas producers by country (Slideshow). Futures, 16 February 2012. Web. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. “Are We Running Out of Oil and Gas?” PetroStrategies, Inc. 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2012 Read More