Beirut Arab University

Faculty of Engineering Fall 2017

Chemical and Petroleum
Eng. Dpt.

Natural Gas Engineering

Dr. Rami HARKOUSS

Chairman
 General view

This course provides:

Natural Gas Composition and Phase Behavior

Gas-Liquid Separation

Gas Sweetening

Liquefied Natural Gas LNG

Gas to Liquids GTL

 Evaluation and Textbook

Total = 100%

10% Participation, Behavior, Drop quizzes,

20% Midterm (Week 6-7)

Project (High Importance)
30% (Soft copies of Word due to W11 and PPT presentations
on W12 to be sent by emails: r.harkous@bau.edu.lb)
40% Final exam

Advanced Natural Gas Engineering by Xiuli Wang.

Textbook University of Houston, Texas.

Reference(s) All kinds: handouts, lectures, internet

 Projects Topics
Legislations for LNG unit process (implementation and
environment including safety)
Legislations for Gas Production plant (implementation
and environment including safety)
Legislations for Gas transportation /pipelines, Vessels/
(implementation and environment including safety)
Design of a typical LNG unit process (including
feasibility study)
Design of a typical Gas Production plant (including
feasibility study)
Design of a typical Gas transportation system (including
feasibility study)
 The project must contain:
At least 5 different citations from international scientific
journals related to topic

At least two different case studies from neighbor

countries in the Middle East region for each topic

Suggest the best scenario for Lebanon case in each topic

The general path of a typical research project:

Abstract
Introduction and problematic
Literature review
Methodology, case studies, examples, feasibility studies,
The suitable scenario for Lebanese case
Conclusions and perspectives
References
Ch. 1 Natural Gas Basics
Introduction
Natural gas provided more than 25% of the
total world energy supply

It is colorless, odorless, shapeless, and

lighter than air

1,000 Btu/scf

Used for domestic applications and to

generate electricity
There are very large deposits of natural gas in the
world, for that reason, there has been a
considerable increase in new gas exploration,
field development, and production activities.

To develop a natural gas field, one of the first

important steps is to understand the
fundamentals of natural gas (basic petroleum
geology, natural gas origins, resources, and
properties)
Natural Gas Origins and Accumulations
It is commonly accepted that natural gas, like oil,
has been generated from organic debris that have
been deposited in geologic time and have been
embedded along with inorganic matter at a
considerable depth below todays surface.

Over time (tens to hundreds of millions of years),

because of compaction, high pressure, and
temperature, the organic material gradually became
coal, oil, or natural gas.
Much of natural gas has escaped over time and
continues to this day. However, if a cap rock is
encountered, it stops the migration and confines
gas-in-place.

To accumulate, three things have to be present:

the source rock for the creation of natural gas
the porous media to accommodate the created gas
the impermeable rock on top to trap the gas
inside the porous rock-reservoir
Natural Gas Resources
Pressure and temperature play a critical role in the
evolution and the nature of the specific reservoir
(mixtures or not).

In general, depths of 3,000 ft or less are likely to

contain heavy oil with virtually no gas. Oil becomes
lighter as the depth increases, which means that gas
coexists with oil.
Gas can be in the form of a gas-cap on top of the oil
zone, or it can be dissolved in the oil. As depth
increases, more gas is present.

At around 10,000 to 12,000 ft depth are oil reservoirs of

API gravity between 28 and 32. They also coexist with
substantial quantities of gas of 500 to 1,000 scf/stb.

At greater depths, 17,000 ft and certainly over 20,000 ft,

reservoirs contain almost exclusively natural gas
Non-associated Gas
These are reservoirs that contain almost entirely
natural gas at reservoir conditions.

They are generally found at greater depth. If the

fluid at the surface still remains gas, then it is called
dry gas.

If the surface pressures cause some liquid

hydrocarbons to evolve, it is called a wet gas
reservoir.
While non-associated gas reservoirs are found
at greater depths, upward migration from the
source rock can result in shallow gas
reservoirs, and in some cases, such as the
Arctic, the cap rock may be the permafrost
Associated Gas
Almost all oil reservoirs except those
classified as extra heavy or tars will
produce some natural gas at the surface.
Oil will not be shipped in a commercial
pipeline or a tanker with gas still in the
solution. The gas thus should be
liberated and known as associated gas.
Unconventional Gas
The term unconventional gas is widely used,
but it refers more to the geological setting and
rock type rather than to the gas itself, which is
nearly all methane.

These reservoirs present operational or

economic challenges, or both, which would not
be ordinarily found in conventional reservoirs.
tight gas formed in sandstones or carbonates, refers
to low-permeability formations (less than 1 md and
often as low as 0.001 md).

Massive hydraulic fracturing was greatly expanded in

the 1970s and 1980s and targeted these reservoirs.

In the United States and Canada, tight gas occupies a

sizeable part of the natural gas industry. In 2007, about
30% of US natural gas was produced from tight gas
reservoirs.
Coalbed methane (CBM) refers to methane gas that
is found adsorbed in many buried coalbed deposits.
Wells drilled in these deposits are hydraulically
fractured and allow for the production of desorbed
methane. In 2007, about 9% of US natural gas was
produced from CBM.

Shale gas is found in organic shale rocks and has

seen increased activity between 2000 and 2008 in
the US. Because these reservoirs have virtually no
permeability, horizontal well completions with
multiple hydraulic fractures would be applied.
Composition and Phase Behavior
The composition vary widely. It contains primarily
methane (CH4) with decreasing quantities of ethane
(C2H6), propane (C3H8), butane (C4H10), and pentane
(C5H12).

Some natural gas mixtures can also contain

nonhydrocarbon gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2),
oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), hydrogen sulphide (H2S),
and traces of rare gases (Ar, He, Ne, Xe).
Natural gas phase behavior is a function of
pressure, temperature, and volume.
Therefore it is very often illustrated by the
PVT diagram or phase behavior
envelope. Understanding phase behavior
is critical to the hydrocarbon recovery
mechanism and production prediction.
 Bubble Point Curve

It separates oil phase from the two-phase

(natural gas and oil) region.

This means that at a given temperature, when

pressure decreases and below the bubble point
curve, gas will be emitted from the liquid phase
to the two-phase region.
 Dew Point Curve

It separates the pure gas phase from the two-phase region.

It is the connected points of pressure and temperature at
which the first liquid droplet is formed out of the gas phase

Critical Point: the point on the phase envelope where the

bubble point curve meets the dew point curve. At that given
pressure and temperature, gas properties are identical to
liquid properties. The pressure and temperature at the
critical point are called critical pressure and temperature,
respectively.
Cricondentherm: the highest temperature at which
liquid and vapor can coexist.

Cricondenbar: the highest pressure at which a

liquid and vapor can coexist

The natural gas phase envelope can be very

different depending on its source
 Dry and Wet Gas
Dry gas is in the gaseous phase under reservoir conditions, as
marked by point A in the previous Figure. It contains
primarily methane with small amounts of ethane, propane,
and butane, with little or no heavier compounds. When it is
produced to the surface, it is maintained in the gaseous phase
with surface temperature falling outside the two-phase
envelope. Therefore it will not form any liquids, which are at
times referred to as NGL (natural gas liquids).

Wet gas, on the other hand, will have liquid dropped out
once it reaches the surface, which means that the surface
conditions of pressure and temperature will fall inside the
two-phase region.
Retrograde Condensate Gas
Retrograde condensate systems and reservoirs
are a unique phenomenon that appears only
among hydrocarbon mixtures. As pressure
decreases from point B to the two-phase shaded
area in the Figure, the amount of liquid in the
reservoir increases. As pressure decreases
further, liquid starts to revaporize. Between the
dew point and the point where liquid
revaporizes is the region of retrograde
condensation.
One way to prevent the formation of condensate is to
maintain the flowing well bottomhole pressure above
the dew point pressure. This is often not satisfactory
because the drawdown (reservoir pressure minus
flowing bottomhole pressure) may not be sufficient
enough for the economic production rate.

An alternative technique is to allow the formation of

condensate, but occasionally to inject methane gas into
the production well. The gas dissolves and sweeps the
liquid condensate into the reservoir. The well is then
put back in production. This approach is repeated
several times in the life of the well. It is known as gas
cycling.
Another way is to inject both nitrogen and
methane, which develops a miscible
displacement process and results in high
condensate recoveries

Removing the bank of condensate from the

near-wellbore region is still a challenge for the
oil and gas industry. Understanding the near-
wellbore gas-condensate flow is thus very
important to optimize production of gas
condensate reservoirs
 Associated Gas
Under reservoir conditions, gas is often dissolved
in the oil phase as associated gas. As it is
produced to the surface under lower pressure
and temperature, gas will come out from the oil
phase. An oil reservoir whose pressure is above
the bubble point is usually referred to as
undersaturated. If the pressure is inside the two-
phase envelope it is called a saturated, or two-
phase, reservoir and may form a gas-cap on top
of the oil zone.
Natural Gas Properties
The natural gas passes by different pressures and
temperatures during the whole process of production.

Natural gas properties vary significantly with pressure,

temperature, and gas composition. These include the
gas specific gravity (often compared to air), the gas
deviation factor, density, viscosity, isothermal
compressibility, and the formation volume factor.
 Gas Specific Gravity
Gas specific gravity is defined as the ratio of the
molecular weight of a particular natural gas to that of
air. The molecular weight of a gas mixture is the
summation of the products of the individual mole
fractions and molecular weights of each individual
component. The molecular weight of air has been
calculated as 28.97.
Example: Gas gravity

A natural gas consists

of the following
(molar) composition:
C1 = 0.871, C2 = 0.084,
C3 = 0.023, CO2 =
0.016 and H2S = 0.006.

Calculate the gas

gravity to air.
Therefore, the gas gravity is 0.64
Gas Deviation Factor
A natural gas mixture under reservoir conditions is
nonideal and its behavior can be approximated by the
real gas law:

where p in psi, V in ft3, n is the number of moles of the gas, T is

absolute temperature in R, R is the universal gas constant and
equals to 10.73 psi ft3/lb-mol-R. Z is the gas deviation factor or Z-
factor

In SI unit, R is 8.314 m3-Pa/K-mol,

density is in kg/m3, and p and T are in
Pa and K, respectively
The gas deviation factor is an important gas property and
it is involved in calculating gas properties such as the
formation volume factor, density, compressibility, and
viscosity.

All these properties are necessary in calculating initial

gas-in-place (and, thus, reserves), predicting future gas
production and designing production tubing and
pipelines

The Z can be determined in a PVT laboratory or by charts

Pseudoreduced Properties
Ex: Calculations with real gas law
Given the natural gas gravity to air
0.75, ppc and Tpc are 667 psi and 405 R,
respectively.

If the pressure and temperature are

1,500 psi and 20F, respectively,
calculate how many lb of gas can fit in
1,000 ft3 of space?
Solution:

For T = 20F = 480 R, Tpr = 480/405 = 1.19

For p = 1,500 psi, ppr = 1,500/667 = 2.25. From the chart, Z

is obtained as 0.51. By using the previous formula:
Ex: Calculation of gas reservoir volume
Use the real gas law to calculate the volume of 5 lb-mol
of a gas mixture at reservoir conditions of T = 180F and
p = 4,000 psi.
ppr = 5.96 and Tpr = 1.69.
From the chart, Z = 0.855
Gas Formation Volume Factor
It relates the reservoir volume to the volume at standard
conditions of any hydrocarbon mixture. In the case of a
natural gas, the formation volume factor, Bg, can be related
with the application of the real gas law for reservoir
conditions and for standard conditions.
If the initial formation volume factor of the gas,
Bgi, is known, then the initial gas-in-place, Gi,
can be calculated as

where A is the reservoir area in acres, h is reservoir net

thickness in ft, and Sg is gas saturation
Example
Relating downhole rate with the rate at
standard conditions for a production rate
of 10 MMscf/d (million cubic feet per day),
calculate the downhole rate if downhole p
= 1,500 psi, T = 180F, gas gravity is 0.64,
ppc = 670 psia and Tpc = 370 R
p = 1,500 psi and T = 180F, then ppr = 2.25 and Tpr = 1.73
From chart, z = 0.89

At a surface flow rate of 10 MMscf/d, the downhole flow

rate is: