Composition, production and use of natural gas. Natural gas is oil's soul mate. Where is oil produced?
Oil is a fossil substance that is an oily, flammable liquid. Oil deposits are found at depths from several tens of meters to 5-6 kilometers. The maximum number of deposits is located at a depth of 2-3 kilometers. Oil remains the main fuel raw material in the world. Its share in the global energy balance is 46%.
Characteristics and types of oil
In terms of chemical composition, oil is a mixture of about 1000 substances. The main “ingredient” is hydrocarbons with different molecular weights. There are about 80-85% of them in oil. There are three types of hydrocarbons: paraffinic (methane), naphthenic and aromatic. The latter are the most toxic.
About 4-5% of oil is occupied by organic compounds - sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen. Other components: hydrocarbon gases, water, mineral salts, metals, mechanical impurities (sand, clay, limestone).
The color of oil varies from light yellow to dark brown. There is also black oil, and rich green and even colorless. The smell can also be different: from light and pleasant to heavy. It all depends on the content of sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen in oil.
Most important indicator The quality of oil is its density. The lighter it is, the higher it is valued. There are: light oil (800-870 kg/m³), medium (870-910 kg/m³) and heavy (over 910 kg/m³). The indicators depend on the composition of the oil, temperature, pressure and amount of gas content. Oil density is measured with a hydrometer.
Other parameters by which the quality of oil is determined: viscosity, crystallization, combustion and flash points, electrical conductivity and heat capacity.
Oilfield
Oil is a non-renewable resource. Deposits of this mineral are classified in different ways: depending on the geographical location, on exploration and study, on the shape and size of the deposits.
The richest country in oil is Saudi Arabia (36 billion tons). This is followed by Canada (28 billion tons), Iran (19 billion tons) and Libya (15 billion tons). Russia is in 8th place on this list (13 billion tons).
Super-giant oil fields, the reserves of which exceed 5 billion tons: Rumaila in Iraq, Cantarel in Mexico, Tengiz in Kazakhstan, Al-Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, Samotlor in Russia, Burgan in Kuwait and Daqing in China.
Work is constantly underway to develop new deposits. According to the BP Statistical review of world energy, Venezuela and Canada are very promising in this regard. Experts believe that at the current rate of industrial development, oil in these two countries alone will be enough for the entire world to last 110 years.
Oil production and refining
Oil production is a very complex process consisting of many stages.
There are three methods of oil production:
Primary - the oil itself gushes out under the natural pressure of the upper layers. In order for oil to rise to the surface, submersible pumps and pumping machines are used. Up to 15% of the world's oil is produced this way.
Secondary method. When natural pressure is no longer enough, fresh water, carbon dioxide or air is pumped into the formation to increase pressure. The oil recovery factor in this case is 45%.
The tertiary method is used when the secondary one is no longer relevant. In this case, either water vapor is pumped in or the oil is liquefied by heating it to a certain temperature. In this way, another 15 percent of oil can be pumped out of the field.
Oil refining is a multi-stage cycle of operations that is carried out to obtain petroleum products from raw materials. First, oil is purified from gases, water, and various impurities, then transported to oil refineries, where industrial products are obtained through complex operations.
Application of oil
People began to use oil long before our era. For example, asphalt and bitumen were used in the construction of the walls of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar heated a huge furnace with oil. And the ancient Greek historian Herodotus described the method of oil production used by the ancient Greeks. And in ancient India, oil was widely used in construction.
Currently, the list of products derived from oil numbers in the thousands. Suffice it to mention that petroleum products are used in almost all types of industry: energy, heavy and light, chemical and food. Petroleum products have found application in the automotive industry, medicine, rocket science, agriculture and construction.
It should be noted that natural resource deposits are unevenly distributed. Their main areas of location:
- Far East - 45 on Sakhalin Island and 12 on Sakha Island in Yakutia.
- Western Siberia has about 500 fields, which accounts for 70% of Russian oil reserves.
- Russian Arctic - Novoportovskoye field and Gazprom Neft.
Oil fields in Russia
The total number of oil fields is more than 2 thousand. The largest are the following:- Tuymazinskoe. This oil field is located in the Republic of Bashkiria and is one of the largest places where oil is produced in Russia. The process of oil production here began in 1937 and continues to this day.
- Samotlor. This deposit is located near Lake Samotlor. Oil production has been carried out here since the middle of the last century. Now the oil and gas company Rosneft is engaged in production.
- Romashkinskoe. It is one of the oldest oil fields. Location: Republic of Tatarstan. Its reserves amount to about 5 billion tons. Their production is carried out by the Tatneft company.
- Priobskoe. In terms of average daily oil production, it ranks first in Russia. Approximately 100 thousand tons of oil are produced per day. The work is being carried out by Gazprom Neft and Rosneft.
- Lyantorskoe. The daily volume of oil produced is 26 thousand tons. "Surgutneftegaz" is a company engaged in the extraction of mineral resources in this area.
- Fedorovskoe. Total mineral reserves are approximately 2 billion tons.
Prospects for the oil industry in Russia
- It is predicted that in the coming years, due to the increase in the number of road transport in the world and in Russia in particular, the oil industry will only develop.
- The introduction of modern technologies and reduction of losses at all stages of the oil extraction process will significantly increase the profitability of the industry.
- The position of Russian oil producing companies in the markets of other countries is strengthening. Russian government aims to increase production volumes, which in the future will lead to expanded fuel exports to other countries near and far abroad.
Natural gas fields in Russia
Russia ranks 8th in the world in natural gas production. The main deposits are:- Urengoyskoe. Its volume is approximately 16 trillion cubic meters of gas.
- Yamburgskoe. The volume of natural gas reserves is about 8 trillion cubic meters.
- Bovanenkovskoe. Approximately 5 trillion cubic meters is the volume of this deposit.
- Shtokmanovskoe. The volume of natural gas reserves here is approximately 4 trillion cubic meters.
- Leningradskoe. One of the most promising places for gas production. The volume is approximately 3 trillion. cubic meters
It is worth noting that the world's largest enterprise that processes natural gas, the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, is located in Russia. In addition to this plant, there are several other enterprises operating in the country - the Urengoy, Sosnogorsk, Astrakhan gas processing plants and several dozen other small ones.
Current problems of oil and gas production in Russia
- Low rate of mineral extraction and a significant increase in the cost of work.
- The deposits are located in hard-to-reach places.
- Wear and tear of oil production equipment and the use of outdated energy-intensive technologies.
- Low rates of innovation in oil production.
- Irrational use of oil and gas.
In the magazine charming vl_ad_le_na I read a great post about oil production. I publish with the permission of the author.
What is oil?
Oil is a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons: paraffins, aromatics and others. In fact, oil is not always black - it can also be green (Devonian, I used to have it in a jar, sorry, I threw it away), brown (the most common) and even white (transparent, it seems to be found in the Caucasus).
Oil is divided into several quality classes depending on its chemical composition - accordingly, its price changes. Also, associated gas is often dissolved in oil, which burns so brightly in flares.
Gas can be dissolved from 1 to 400 cubic meters in a cubic meter of oil. That is a lot. This gas itself mainly consists of methane, but due to the difficulty of its preparation (it must be dried, purified and brought to GOST Wobbe numbers - so that there is a strictly defined calorific value), associated gas is very rarely used for domestic purposes. Roughly speaking, if gas from the field is released into an apartment into a gas stove, the consequences can range from soot on the ceiling to a fatally damaged stove and poisoning (for example, hydrogen sulfide).
Oh yes. Another associated nasty thing in oil is dissolved hydrogen sulfide (because oil is an organic substance). It is highly poisonous and highly corrosive. This imposes its own difficulties on oil production. FOR OIL PRODUCTION. Professionalism, which, by the way, I don’t use.
Where did the oil come from?
There are two theories on this matter (more details -). One is inorganic. It was first proposed by Mendeleev and is that water flowed past hot metal carbides, and thus hydrocarbons were formed. The second is the organic theory. It is believed that oil "ripened", as a rule, in marine and lagoon conditions, by rotting organic remains of animals and plants (silt) under certain thermobaric conditions (high pressure and temperature). In principle, research supports this theory.
Why is geology needed?
It is probably worth mentioning the structure of our Earth. In my opinion, everything in the picture is beautiful and clear.
So, oil geologists deal only with the earth's crust. It consists of a crystalline basement (oil is very rarely found there, since these are igneous and metamorphic rocks) and a sedimentary cover. The sedimentary cover consists of sedimentary rocks, but I will not delve into geology. Let me just say that the depths oil wells usually about 500 - 3500 m. It is at this depth that oil lies. Above is usually only water, below is a crystalline foundation. The deeper the rock, the earlier it was deposited, which is logical.
Where is the oil located?
Contrary to some widespread myths about “oil lakes” underground, oil is found in traps. To simplify, the traps in a vertical section look like this (water is the eternal companion of oil):
(A fold curved with its “back” up is called an anticline. And if it looks like a bowl, it is a syncline; oil is not retained in synclines).
Or like this:
And in plan they can be round or oval elevations. Dimensions range from hundreds of meters to hundreds of kilometers. One or more of these traps located nearby constitute an oil deposit.
Since oil is lighter than water, it floats to the top. But to prevent oil from flowing anywhere else (to the right, left, up or down), the layer with it must be limited by the caprock above and below. Typically these are clays, dense carbonates or salts.
Where do the bends inside the earth's crust come from? After all, rocks are deposited horizontally or almost horizontally? (if they are deposited in heaps, then these heaps are usually quickly leveled by wind and water). And bends - uplifts, downwards - arise as a result of tectonics. Did you see the words “turbulent convection” in the picture with a section of the Earth? This very convection moves the lithospheric plates, which leads to the formation of cracks in the plates, and consequently, displacement of blocks between the cracks and changes in the internal structure of the Earth.
Where is oil located?
Oil does not occur on its own; as has already been said, oil lakes do not exist. Oil is found in the rock, namely, in its voids - pores and cracks:
Rocks are characterized by such properties as porosity is the proportion of volume of voids in the rock - and permeability- the ability of a rock to pass liquid or gas through itself. For example, ordinary sand is characterized by very high permeability. And concrete is much worse. But I dare to assure you that the rock, which lies at a depth of 2000 m with high pressure and temperature, has properties much closer to concrete than to sand. I felt. However, oil is extracted from there.
This is a core - a drilled piece of rock. Dense sandstone. Depth 1800 m. There is no oil in it.
Another important addition is that nature abhors a vacuum. Almost all porous and permeable rocks are, as a rule, saturated with water, i.e. there is water in their pores. Salty because it flowed through many minerals. And it is logical that some of these minerals are carried away along with water in dissolved form, and then, when thermobaric conditions change, they fall out in these very pores. Thus, the rock grains become held together by salts and this process is called cementation. This is why, by and large, wells do not crumble immediately during the drilling process - because the rocks are cemented.
How is oil found?
Usually, first for seismic exploration: they start vibrations on the surface (by explosion, for example) and measure the time of their return to the receivers.
Next, based on the return time of the wave, the depth of a particular horizon at different points on the surface is calculated and maps are constructed. If an uplift (=anticlinal trap) is detected on the map, it is checked for the presence of oil by drilling a well. Not all traps contain oil.
How are wells drilled?
A well is a vertical mine opening with a length many times greater than its width.
Two facts about wells: 1. They are deep. 2. They are narrow. The average diameter of a well at the entrance to the formation is about 0.2-0.3 m. That is, a person definitely cannot get through there. The average depth is, as I already said, 500-3500 m.
Wells are drilled from drilling rigs. There is such a tool for crushing rock as a chisel. Note, not a drill. And it is completely different from the same screw-shaped device from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
The bit is suspended on drill pipes and rotates - it is pressed to the bottom of the well by the weight of these same pipes. There are different principles for setting the bit in motion, but usually the entire drill string of pipes rotates so that the bit rotates and crushes the rock with its teeth. Also, drilling fluid is constantly pumped into the well (inside the drill pipe) and pumped out (between the wall of the well and the outer wall of the pipe) in order to cool this entire structure and carry away particles of crushed rock.
What is the tower for? To hang these same drill pipes on it (after all, during the drilling process, the upper end of the column is lowered, and new pipes must be screwed to it) and to raise the pipe string to replace the bit. Drilling one well takes about a month. Sometimes a special annular bit is used, which, when drilling, leaves a central column of rock - a core. The core is selected to study the properties of rocks, although this is expensive. There are also inclined and horizontal wells.
How do you know which layer is where?
A person cannot go down the well. But we need to know what we drilled there, right? When a well is drilled, geophysical probes are lowered into it on a cable. These probes operate on completely different physical operating principles - self-polarization, induction, resistance measurement, gamma radiation, neutron radiation, borehole diameter measurement, etc. All curves are written to files, resulting in this nightmare:
Now geophysicists get to work. Knowing physical properties each rock, they identify layers according to lithology - sandstones, carbonates, clays - and break down the section according to stratigraphy (i.e. to what era and time the formation belongs). I think everyone has heard about Jurassic Park:
In fact, there is a much more detailed division of the section into tiers, horizons, packs, etc. - but that doesn’t matter to us now. It is important that oil reservoirs (layers capable of producing oil) are of two types: carbonate (limestone, like chalk, for example) and terrigenous (sand, only cemented). Carbonates are CaCO3. Terrigenous - SiO2. This is if it's rude. It’s impossible to say which ones are better, they are all different.
How is a well prepared for production?
After the well is drilled, it is cased. This means that they lower a long string of steel casing pipes (almost the same diameter as a well), and then ordinary cement mortar is pumped into the space between the wall of the well and the outer wall of the pipe. This is done to ensure that the well does not crumble (after all, not all rocks are well cemented). In cross-section, the well now looks like this:
But we covered the formation we needed with casing and cement! Therefore, the column is perforated opposite the formation (how do you know where the desired formation is? Geophysics!). Again, a hammer drill with explosive charges embedded in it is lowered on a cable. There the charges are triggered and holes and perforation channels are formed. Now we don’t worry about water from neighboring layers - we perforated the well just opposite the one we needed.
How is oil extracted?
The most interesting part, I think. Oil is much more viscous than water. I think what viscosity is is intuitive. Some petroleum bitumens, for example, have a viscosity similar to butter.
I'll come in from the other end. The fluids in the formation are under pressure - the overlying layers of rocks press on them. And when we drill a well, there is no pressure from the side of the well. That is, there is low pressure in the area of the well. A pressure difference is created, called depression, and it is this that leads to the fact that oil begins to flow towards the well and appear in it.
To describe the flow of oil, there are two simple equations that all oil workers should know.
Darcy equation for straight flow:
Dupuis equation for plane-radial flow (exactly the case of fluid inflow to the well):
Actually, we stand on them. There is no point in delving further into physics and writing an equation for unsteady inflow.
From a technical point of view, three methods of oil production are most common.
Fountain. This is when the reservoir pressure is very high, and oil not only flows into the well, but also rises to the very top and overflows (well, it doesn’t actually overflow, but into the pipe - and further).
Pumps SRP (rod pump) and ESP (electric centrifugal pump). The first case is a regular rocking machine.
The second one is not visible on the surface at all:
Notice there are no towers. The tower is needed only for lowering/raising pipes in the well, but not for production.
The essence of the pumps' operation is simple: creating additional pressure so that the liquid entering the well can rise through the well to the surface of the earth.
It is worth remembering an ordinary glass of water. How do we drink from it? Let's tilt it, right? But you won’t be able to tilt the well. But you can put a straw in a glass of water and drink through it, sucking in the liquid with your mouth. This is roughly how a well works: its walls are like the walls of a glass, and instead of a tube, a string of tubing is lowered into the well. Oil rises through pipes.
In the case of a sucker rod pump, the pumping machine moves its “head” up and down, respectively, setting the rod in motion. When the rod moves upward, it carries the pump along with it (the lower valve opens), and when it moves downward, the pump lowers (the upper valve opens). So, little by little, the liquid rises up.
The ESP operates directly from electricity (with a motor, of course). Wheels (horizontal) spin inside the pump; they have slots in them, so the oil rises to the top.
I must add that the open gushing of oil, which they like to show in cartoons, is not only an emergency situation, but also an environmental disaster and millions in fines.
What to do when oil production is poor?
Over time, oil stops being squeezed out of the rock under the weight of the overlying strata. Then the PPD system comes into operation - maintaining reservoir pressure. Injection wells are drilled and water is pumped into them under high pressure. Naturally, the injected or produced water will sooner or later enter the production wells and rise to the top along with the oil.
It should also be noted that the greater the share of oil in the flow, the faster it flows, and vice versa. Therefore, the more water flows with the oil, the more difficult it is for the oil to get out of the pores and into the well. The dependence of the fraction of oil permeability on the fraction of water in the flow is presented below and is called relative phase permeability curves. This is also a very necessary concept for an oil worker.
If the bottomhole zone of the formation is contaminated (with small particles of rock carried along with oil, or solid paraffins have fallen out), then acid treatments are carried out (the well is stopped and a small volume of hydrochloric acid is pumped into it) - this process is good for carbonate formations because they dissolve. But for terrigenous (sandstones) acid doesn’t matter. Therefore, hydraulic fracturing is carried out in them - a gel is pumped into the well under very high pressure, so that the formation begins to crack in the area of the well, after which proppant is pumped in (ceramic balls or coarse sand so that the crack does not close). After this, the well begins to work much better, because the obstacles to the flow have been eliminated.
What happens to the oil after it is extracted?
First, oil rises to the surface of the earth in a pipe that runs from each well. 10-15 nearby wells are connected by these pipes to one metering device, where it is measured how much oil is produced. Then the oil is processed according to GOST standards: salts, water, mechanical impurities (small rock particles) are removed from it, if necessary, hydrogen sulfide is removed, and the oil is completely degassed to atmospheric pressure (you remember that oil can contain how much gas?). Marketable oil enters the refinery. But the plant may be far away, and then the Transneft company comes into play - main pipelines for finished oil (as opposed to field pipelines for crude oil with water). Oil is pumped through the pipeline using the same ESPs, only placed on their side. The impellers rotate in the same way.
The water separated from the oil is pumped back into the formation, the gas is flared or sent to a gas processing plant. And oil is either sold (abroad by pipelines or tankers) or goes to an oil refinery, where it is distilled by heating: light fractions (gasoline, kerosene, naphtha) are used for fuel, heavy paraffin fractions are used for raw materials for plastics, etc., and the heaviest fuel oils with a boiling point above 300 degrees usually serve as fuel for boiler houses.
How is all this regulated?
For oil production, there are two main project documents: a project for calculating reserves (it proves that there is exactly that much oil in the reservoir, and not more and not less) and a development project (it describes the history of the field and proves that it should be developed this way, and not otherwise).
To calculate reserves, geological models are built, and for a development project, hydrodynamic models are built (where it is calculated how the field will operate in one mode or another).
How much does all this cost?
I’ll say right away that all prices are usually confidential. But I can roughly say: a well in Samara costs 30-100 million rubles. depending on the depth. A ton of commercial (not refined) oil costs differently. When I was counting the first diploma, they gave a value of about 3000 rubles, when the second - about 6000 rubles, the time difference is a year, but these may not be real values. Now I do not know. Taxes are at least 40% of profits, plus property tax (depending on the book value of the property), plus mineral extraction tax. Add the money required for employee salaries, for electricity, for well repairs and field development - the construction of pipelines and equipment for collecting and treating oil. Very often the economics of development projects go into the negative, so you have to manage to work in the plus.
I will add such a phenomenon as discounting - a ton of oil produced in next year, is worth less than a ton of oil produced in it. Therefore, we need to intensify oil production (which also costs money).
So, I briefly outlined what I studied for 6 years. The whole process, from the appearance of oil in the reservoir, exploration, drilling, production, processing and transportation to sale - you see that this requires specialists of completely different profiles. I hope that at least someone read this long post - and I cleared my conscience and dispelled at least a few of the myths surrounding oil.
Natural gas, which we are all so accustomed to in our kitchens, is a close relative of oil. It consists mostly of methane with admixtures of heavier hydrocarbons (ethane, propane, butane). Under natural conditions, it also often contains impurities of other gases (helium, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide).
Typical composition of natural gas:
Hydrocarbons:
- Methane – 70-98%
- Ethane – 1-10%
- Propane – up to 5%
- Butane – up to 2%
- Pentane – up to 1%
- Hexane – up to 0.5%
Impurities:
- Nitrogen – up to 15%
- Helium – up to 5%
- Carbon dioxide – up to 1%
- Hydrogen sulfide – less than 0.1%
Natural gas is extremely widespread in the depths of the earth. It can be found in the thickness of the earth's crust at a depth of several centimeters to 8 kilometers. Just like oil, natural gas, in the process of migration in the earth's crust, falls into traps (permeable layers limited by impermeable rock layers), resulting in the formation of gas fields.
Five largest gas fields in Russia:
- Urengoyskoe (gas)
- Yamburgskoe (oil and gas condensate)
- Bovanenkovskoe (oil and gas condensate)
- Shtokmanovskoe (gas condensate)
- Leningradskoe (gas)
Natural (hydrocarbon) gas is a frequent satellite of oil fields. It is usually found in oil in dissolved form, and in some cases accumulates in the upper part of fields, forming a so-called gas cap. For a long time, the gas released during oil production, called associated gas, was an undesirable part of the extraction process. Most often it was simply burned in torches.
Only over the past few decades has humanity learned to fully utilize all the benefits of natural gas. This delay in the development of this extremely valuable type of fuel is largely due to the fact that gas transportation and its use in industry and everyday life require a fairly high technical and technological level of development. In addition, natural gas, when mixed with air, forms an explosive mixture, which requires increased safety measures when using it.
Gas Application
Some attempts to use gas were made back in the 19th century. Lamp gas, as it was then called, served as a source of illumination. Gas fields were not yet being developed at that time, and gas produced along with oil was used for lighting. Therefore, such gas was often called petroleum gas. For example, Kazan was illuminated with such oil gas for a long time. It was also used to illuminate St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Currently, gas plays an increasingly significant role in the world's energy sector. The range of its application is very wide. It is used in industry, in everyday life, in boiler houses, thermal power plants, as motor fuel for cars and as a feedstock in the chemical industry.
Gas is considered a relatively clean fuel. When gas is burned, only carbon dioxide and water are produced. At the same time, carbon dioxide emissions are almost two times less than when burning coal and 1.3 times less than when burning oil. Not to mention the fact that when oil and coal are burned, soot and ash remain. Due to the fact that gas is the most environmentally friendly of all fossil fuels, it occupies a dominant position in the energy sector of modern megacities.
How gas is produced
Just like oil, natural gas is produced using wells that are distributed evenly throughout the entire area of the gas field. Production occurs due to the difference in pressure in the gas-bearing formation and on the surface. Under the influence of reservoir pressure, gas is pushed through the wells to the surface, where it enters the collection system. Next, the gas is supplied to a complex gas treatment plant, where it is purified from impurities. If the amount of impurities in the produced gas is insignificant, then it can be immediately sent to a gas processing plant, bypassing the complex treatment plant.
How is gas transported?
Gas is transported primarily through pipelines. The main volumes of gas are transported by main gas pipelines, where gas pressure can reach 118 atm. Gas reaches consumers through distribution and in-house gas pipelines. First, the gas passes through a gas distribution station, where its pressure is reduced to 12 atm. Then it is supplied through gas distribution pipelines to gas control points, where its pressure is again reduced, this time to 0.3 atm. After that, the gas reaches our kitchen through gas pipelines inside the house.
This entire huge gas distribution infrastructure is truly a big picture. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of kilometers of gas pipelines, entangling almost the entire territory of Russia. If this entire web of gas pipelines is stretched into one line, then its length will be enough to reach from the Earth to the Moon and back. And this is only the Russian gas transportation system. If we talk about the entire global gas transportation infrastructure, then we will be talking about millions of kilometers of pipelines.
Since natural gas has neither odor nor color, in order to quickly detect gas leaks, it is artificially given an unpleasant odor. This process is called odorization and occurs at gas distribution stations. Sulfur-containing compounds, such as ethanethiol (EtSH), are usually used as odorants, that is, unpleasant-smelling substances.
Gas consumption is seasonal. In winter, its consumption increases, and in summer it decreases. To smooth out seasonal fluctuations in gas consumption, underground gas storage facilities (UGS) are being created near large industrial centers. These may be depleted gas fields, adapted for gas storage, or artificially created underground salt caves. In summer, excess transported gas is sent to underground storage facilities, and in winter, on the contrary, a possible lack of pipeline system capacity is compensated by taking gas from storage facilities.
In world practice, in addition to gas pipelines, natural gas is often transported in liquefied form through special vessels - gas carriers (methane carriers). In liquefied form, the volume of natural gas is reduced by 600 times, which is convenient not only for transportation, but also for storage. To liquefy the gas, it is cooled to its condensation temperature (-161.5 °C), causing it to turn into a liquid. It is transported in this chilled form. The main producers of liquefied natural gas are Qatar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Nigeria.
Prospects and trends
Due to its environmental friendliness and the constant improvement of equipment and technologies, both in the production and use of gas, this type of fuel is becoming increasingly popular. BP, for example, predicts faster growth in demand for gas compared to other types of fossil fuels.
The growing demand for gas leads to the search for new, often unconventional, sources of gas. Such sources may be:
- Gas from coal seams
- Shale gas
- Gas hydrates
♦ Gas from coal seams Mining began only in the late 1980s. This was first done in the USA, where the commercial viability of this type of mining was proven. In Russia, Gazprom began testing this method in 2003, starting trial production of methane from coal seams in Kuzbass. Gas production from coal seams is also carried out in other countries - Australia, Canada and China.
♦ Shale gas. The shale revolution in gas production that occurred in the United States in the last decade has not left the front pages of periodicals. The development of horizontal drilling technology has made it possible to extract gas from low-permeability shale in volumes that cover the costs of its extraction. The phenomenon of rapid development of shale gas production in the United States is spurring other countries to develop this area. Besides the USA active work shale gas production is carried out in Canada. China also has significant potential for developing large-scale shale gas production.
♦ Gas hydrates. A significant part of natural gas is in a crystalline state in the form of so-called gas hydrates (methane hydrates). Large reserves of gas hydrates exist in the oceans and in permafrost zones of continents. Currently, estimated gas reserves in the form of gas hydrates exceed the combined reserves of oil, coal and conventional gas. The development of economically feasible technologies for the extraction of gas hydrates is being intensively pursued in Japan, the USA and some other countries. Japan, which is deprived of traditional gas reserves and is forced to purchase this type of resource at extremely high prices, pays particular attention to this topic.
Natural gas has a great future as a fuel and source of chemical elements. In the long term, it is considered as the main type of fuel that will be used during the transition of the world energy sector to cleaner, renewable resources.
In 2018, Gazprom produced (excluding the share in the production of organizations in which investments are classified as joint operations):
- 497.6 billion cubic meters m of natural and associated gas;
- 15.9 million tons of gas condensate;
- 40.9 million tons of oil.
Gas production strategy
In its strategy, PJSC Gazprom adheres to the principle of producing the volume of gas that is met by demand.
Strategic regions for gas production in the long term are the Yamal Peninsula, Eastern Siberia and the Far East, the Russian continental shelf.
The basis of Gazprom’s strategy in developing promising fields is economic efficiency, determined by the synchronous development of gas production capacities and the capabilities of its transportation, integrated processing and storage.
Oil production strategy
The development of the oil business is one of Gazprom’s strategic objectives. The basis of oil production in the Gazprom Group is PJSC Gazprom Neft.
The key task of Gazprom Neft PJSC until 2030 is to build a new generation company, a leader in the oil industry in its main areas.
To achieve these goals, Gazprom Neft will strive for the most cost-effective extraction of remaining reserves from the current resource base by disseminating the best practices used to optimize development, reducing the cost of proven technologies, as well as attracting and mass implementation of new technologies.
Production facilities of the Gazprom Group in Russia
As of December 31, 2018, Gazprom Group was developing 138 hydrocarbon fields in Russia. The main center of gas production by Gazprom remains the Nadym-Pur-Tazovsky oil and gas region in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Activities to develop the Group's oil reserves are carried out primarily in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, as well as in the Tomsk, Omsk, Orenburg and Irkutsk regions, and in the Pechora Sea.
Capacities of the Gazprom Group in hydrocarbon production in Russia as of December 31, 2018 (excluding companies in which investments are classified as joint operations)Gas, condensate and oil production indicators
Gazprom accounts for 69% of Russian gas production and 12% of all gas produced in the world.
In 2018, the Gazprom Group (excluding the share in production of organizations in which investments are classified as joint operations) produced 497.6 billion cubic meters. m of natural and associated gas.
At the end of 2018, Gazprom (excluding the share in the production of organizations in which investments are classified as joint operations) produced 40.9 million tons of oil and 15.9 million tons of gas condensate.
Taking into account the Gazprom Group’s share in the production volumes of organizations in which investments are classified as joint operations (1.1 billion cubic meters of natural and associated gas and 7.4 million tons of oil), the Group’s hydrocarbon production amounted to 498.7 billion cubic meters. m of natural and associated gas, 15.9 million tons of gas condensate and 48.3 million tons of oil.
Development of hydrocarbon resources abroad
In foreign countries, the Gazprom Group searches for and explores hydrocarbon deposits, participates in a number of oil and gas projects that have entered the production stage, and also provides services related to the construction of wells. The work is carried out in the countries of the former Soviet Union, European countries, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.
