The Oil Drum

268 comments on North American Natural Gas Production and EROI Decline

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The Dude on February 27, 2008 - 9:57pm

Read Harold York's Limited Availability for 'Cheap' LNG to the U.S. for more info on why NA is effectively stranded for NG. For one thing the heat content of much foreign NG is wrong for our system. Also check out Dave Cohen's excellent TOD piece Empire On the Edge--Betting On LNG, which references York's paper. I've read all the articles on NG I can find, shortages for NA are a much more tangible threat than oil, which remains largely a question mark due to the lack of data.

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Nate Hagens on February 27, 2008 - 10:09pm

Jeez - I had never read that piece and was unaware of the heat content issue:

Technical issues surround physical characteristics of an LNG cargo from a specific liquefaction facility to a specific regasification terminal. The heat content of LNG can range between 1,000 and 1,162 Btu per cubic foot (Figure 7). High heat content is incompatible with many U.S. appliances and industrial processes. Thus major interstate pipelines have a heat content specification of 1,035 Btu per cubic foot, with a range of plus or minus 50 Btu.

It seems a good deal of the natural gas from overseas is higher than that range (anything above the yellow band). How hard is that infrastructure to change?

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NervousRex on February 28, 2008 - 12:28am

OK, Amazing.

It's rare to hear about too *much* energy here :-)

I always assumed that the warmed LNG had added nitrogen or CO2 or something inert added to it.

OK -- stabilization

Stabilization is the addition of a gas to the gas normally supplied for the purpose of adjusting the heat content to a specified value. Air is often used for the purpose of reducing heat content and LP gases are used for the purpose of enriching or raising the heat content.