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- The rapidly growing energy demands of Western Europe, Japan & U.S.A.
couldnt be satisfied without importing gas from far fields.
- 2 terms are frequently used to express NG reserves: proved reserves & potential
resources.
- Proved reserves: Quantities of gas that have been found by the drill. They can
be proved by known reservoir characteristics such as: production data, pressure
relationships and
other data, so that volumes of gas can be determined with reasonable
accuracy.
- Potential resources: Quantities of NG that are believed to exist in various
rocks of the Earth's crust but havent yet been found by the drill. They are future
supplies beyond the
proved reserves.
- There has been a huge disparity between "proven" reserves and potential
reserves.
- Different methodologies have been used in arriving at estimates of the future
potential of NG.
- Some estimates were based on growth curves, extrapolations of past
production, exploratory footage drilled & discovery rates.
- Empirical models of gas discoveries and production have also been developed
and converted to mathematical models.
- Future gas supplies as a ratio of the amount of oil to be discovered is a method
that has been used also.
- Another approach is a volumetric appraisal of the potential undrilled areas.
Different limiting assumptions have been made, such as drilling depths, water
depths in offshore areas,
economics & technological factors.
- Even in the case of the highly mature and exploited U.S.A., depending upon
information sources, the potential remaining gas reserve estimates vary from 650
Tcf to 5,000 Tcf.
- Proved NG reserves in 2000 were about 1,050 Tcf in U.S.A. & 170 Tcf in Canada.
- On the global scale, it is more difficult to give a good estimate of NG reserves.
- Unlike oil reserves that are mostly (80%) found in Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), major NG reserves are found in the former Soviet
Union, Middle East, Asia
Pacific, Africa, North America, Southern & Central America, and Europe.
- NG classified as: conventional NG, gas in tight sands, gas in tight shales, coal-bed
methane, gas in geopressured reservoirs & gas in gas hydrates.
1. Conventional NG: Either associated or non-associated gas.
Associated or dissolved gas is found with crude oil. Dissolved gas is that portion
of the gas dissolved in the crude oil and associated gas (sometimes called gas-cap
gas) is free gas in
contact with the crude oil. All crude oil reservoirs contain dissolved gas and may
or may not contain associated gas.
- Non-associated gas is found in a reservoir that contains a minimal quantity of
crude oil.
- Some gases are called gas condensates or simply condensates. Although they
occur as gases in underground reservoirs, they have a high content of H.C. liquids
so they yield
considerable quantities of them on production.
2. Gases in tight sands: Found in many areas that contain formations generally
having porosities of 0.001 to 1 millidarcy (md).
- At higher gas permeabilities, the formations are generally amenable to
conventional fracturing and completion methods.
3. Gases in tight shales: The shale is generally fissile, finely laminated, and
varicolored but predominantly black, brown, or greenish-gray.
- Core analysis has determined that the shale itself has up to 12% porosity,
however, permeability values are commonly < 1 md.
- It is thought, therefore, that the majority of production is controlled by
naturally occurring fractures and is further influenced by bedding planes and
jointing.
- Coal-bed methane: methane gas in minable coal beds with depths < 3,000 ft.
- Although the estimated size of the resource base seems significant, the
recovery of this type of gas may be limited owing to practical constraints.
- Geopressured reservoirs: In a rapidly subsiding basin area, clays often seal
underlying formations and trap their contained fluids. After further subsidence, P
& T of the trapped fluids
exceed those normally anticipated at reservoir depth.
- These reservoirs have been found in many parts of the world during the search
for oil & gas.
- Gas hydrates: Snow-like solids in which each water molecule forms hydrogen
bonds with the four nearest water molecules to build a crystalline lattice structure
that traps gas
molecules in its cavities.
- Contains about 170 times NG by volume under standard conditions.
- Because its a highly concentrated form of NG and extensive deposits of
naturally occurring gas hydrates have been found in various regions of the world,
they are considered as a
future, unconventional resource of NG.