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31 comments on IEA WEO 2008 - NGLs to the Rescue?
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31 comments on IEA WEO 2008 - NGLs to the Rescue?
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I've got my own basic (maybe stupid?) question:
I know that at many fields, gas is still having to be flared - it is "stranded", with no cost-effective way to transport it to consumers. This is a tragedy, but I understand why it is done.
My question is: are producers at least separating out all of the NGLs prior to flaring? It would seem to me that even if some NG is stranded, NO NGLs should be - it shouldn't be that much harder to transport NGLs than it is to transport crude oil or any other liquid petroleum products.
If there are places where NGLs are still not being separated out prior to flaring, then this would suggest to me one of the few remaining opportunities to harvest some "low hanging fruit", and should be taken into account in these analyses. Is it?
WNC,
Good questions!
Upstream of the flare there is normally what is called a liquid “Knock Out”/flare “Knock Out” drum that takes out liquid components from the Nat Gas before flaring. This is to avoid “burning rain” from the flare.
To what extent these liquids are stored for later shipment and sale I don’t know. If the right infrastructure is available, like pipelines, this would certainly be handled at downstream extraction facilities.
To keep these NGLs in a liquid state it requires a pressurized vessel and for stranded gas specialised transport vehicles (ships, railway or road tanks) (where adequate pipelines are not readily available).
WNC -- Unfortunately even the NGL's are flared also at times. It's a function of facility access and costs. Last year I worked off the west coast of Africa and watched 20+ million cf of NG+NGL's flared from the platform. There was neither the room nor economics to allow separation. I don't know what the NGL yield was but it did produce a significant smoke cloud often from horizon to horizon. The operator had offered to lay a line and transport it ashore for free. But the dictator didn't want to spend the monies needed for a LDS to supply his impoverished people.
Yes...a very sad sight I viewed every day from my office window.