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Natural gas is transported with pipelines. It can be stored for an indefinite time. The storage for gas are enormous, underground stations.
It is necessary to be able to control the usage, as it is not always needed immediately as it arrives. Gas usage is also more in the winter then in the summertime.
Pipelines come in various sizes, length and types. There are specific pipelines for gathering gas, the interstate pipelines and the distribution pipelines. The gathering lines transport raw gas from the wells to processor plants. This is the most delicate part of pipelines.
The interstate pipelines transport the processed natural gas from the processor plants to the storage facilities. The distribution lines take the gas to the consumers.
But what about when a pipeline is not close to a well, for example in the Arctic Ocean? Keeping in mind the enormous gas resources thought to be in the Arctic, there are no pipelines hundreds of kilometers to mainland's to gas wells underneath the ocean bed.
Then the LNG carriers enter the scene. These huge container ships transport the gas from offshore wells to the mainland.
Natural gas is actually temporarily converted into a liquid, to save space. 610 cubic feet of natural gas can be converted into a single cubic foot of LNG. The gas is cooled to -162° Celsius, where water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other impurities are also removed.
The gas is put in cryogenic equipped with refrigeration units. When the LNG carrier reaches its destination the liquid is simply heated up and the LNG transforms to gas again, and is put into storage or to a pipeline.
Sources: NaturalGas Geology.com
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The future of Arctic gas development is hard to predict. On one side the Arctic is expected to host around 22% of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and gas reserves. Out of these large part is natural gas.
However, gas is more difficult to transport and thus places higher demands to transportation networks, increasing costs and risks.
Possible sovereignty disputes over land and sea areas in the circumpolar North could delay the development of future off shore gas fields.
Regional examples from the Barents region, where a long-lasting delimitation dispute between Russia and Norway was settled by a treaty in 2011, show how important these political and legal aspects in the development of any future gas potential of the Arctic are.
Immediately after the treaty entering into force 7th of July 2011, the Norwegian side started prospecting for oil and gas.
One of the major challenges is the vulnerable Arctic environment and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic that put high demands to any oil or gas related development in the region.
High costs due to high environmental protection demands could delay or even halt a further development of Arctic gas when compared to costs / benefit calculations in other regions. However, a growing global demand for energy and challenges with energy security e.g. in the Middle East region can give additional momentum to develop Arctic gas despite the named "challenges".
Sources: UArctic Energy Information Administration
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After locating a potential natural gas reservoir, it is up to a team of experts to drill down to where the gas is thought.
This can be done both onshore and offshore.
An economic determination of the potential of the gas reservoir is important. After having located a potential drilling site the next steps involve acquiring permits for drilling, legal arrangements for extracting the gas as well as getting permissions to set up pipelines.
Often this is linked to negotiations with land owners or other holders of rights to extract natural resources. Thus leasing fees or royalties can be a consequence.
Gas deposits can be associated to an existing oil field or exist separately as natural gas field or even in combination with coal deposits.
Sources: EPA Natural Gas Columbia University
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The circumpolar North holds large quantities of natural gas, both discovered resources and estimated ones. Northern Russia has the largest known reserves of natural gas in the Arctic, but it can also be found in other regions such as Norway, Canada and Alaska.
Natural gas develops in geological terms under similar processes as petroleum. It is composed mainly of methane and to a lesser degree of ethane, propane, and butane.
Usually there is 60%–80% methane, but the exact composition varies. Before natural gas is ready for use as commercial fuel it must be treated to remove carbon dioxide, Sulphur compounds and various other chemicals.
Natural gas has advantages over coal and petroleum because it burns cleaner and leaves only small residue. It also provides a higher heat output than any other fossil fuels.
Natural gas emits less carbon dioxide per unit of energy and generally there are no Sulphur oxides, meaning it is more environmentally friendly than oil.
Natural gas is often used for grid peaking power plants and some off-grid engine-generators. This can be highly efficient when combining gas turbines with a steam turbine in so-called "combined cycle" mode.
This power generation by combined cycle mode using natural gas is the cleanest way of generating power using hydrocarbon fuels, and this technology is accordingly widely used wherever gas can be obtained at a reasonable cost.
Sources: Naturalgas.org UArctic Global Greenhouse Warming
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The Arctic is expected to host around 22% of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and gas reserves, according to a 2008 assessment from the US Geological Survey. According to this assessment this would equal an estimated total oil and natural gas resource of 412 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
According to the Energy Information Administration of the USA, the world total consumption of oil barrels per day in the year 2008 was 85.462, the yearly total being thus 31.193.630 billion barrels. This means that the whole world would be around 13 years to use all of the oil in the Arctic, should the whole 412 billion barrels be extracted and produced.
Around 78% of the Arctic resources are expected to be natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL). The West Siberian Basin and East Barents Basin are estimated to be key areas, holding 47% of the total undiscovered resources. 94 percent of the resources within these areas are expected to be natural gas and NGL.
The North American part of the Arctic is expected to hold mostly oil whereas the Eurasian part of the Arctic seems to promise largely extended gas reserves: About 65% of the undiscovered Arctic oil are expected in the American part of the Arctic, compared to only 26% of the undiscovered Arctic natural gas.
The major share of undiscovered oil deposits is expected to be in Arctic Alaska: About 30 billion barrels. Second is the Amerasia Basin, just north of Canada, with an estimate of about 9.7 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and third the East Greenland Rift, which is estimated to hold about 8.9 billion barrels of undiscovered oil.
Altogether, these three North American provinces count for an expected sum of about 48.6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil, corresponding to around 54% of the total undiscovered oil in the Arctic.
In the Barents Sea recent findings indicate that the Skrugard field contains an estimated amount of 250 million barrel oil reserves. Another field, Goliat is currently under development with an estimated reservoir size of 240 million barrels. It is also expected oil reserves are laying around Greenland; however exploration and test drilling have not yet led to any findings.
Despite expected large reserves, the future of Arctic oil development is depending on technical, political and environmental challenges. Technical challenges are in general the harsh Arctic conditions that put special demands on men and material. Transport systems such as pipelines need to be constructed and in addition face technical challenges as climate change puts new requirements towards materials and construction technologies.
Possible sovereignty disputes over land and sea areas in the circumpolar North could also delay the development of future oil fields. Regional examples such as from the Barents Sea, show how a long-lasting delimitation dispute can hold development for many decades. It was not until the 7th of July 2011, the day the Norwegian-Russian delimitation treaty in the Barents Sea entered into force that the Norwegian side started immediate prospecting for oil and gas.
Last but not least there is the challenge of the vulnerable Arctic environment and the indigenous people of the circumpolar North that puts high demands to any oil or gas related project in the region. Increased transport, e.g. by tankers will also require new capabilities to Search and Rescue capabilities as well as oil spill prevention. High costs due to high environmental protection demands could delay or even halt a further development of Arctic oil, especially when cost / benefit calculations compare it with other regions.
An increasing oil price could make the exploitation of oil shale and oil sand reserves e.g. in subarctic regions more reasonable and feasible than an immediate offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean or adjacent shelves. Still a growing global demand for energy and challenges with energy security e.g. in the Middle-East region can give additional momentum to develop Arctic oil despite the named challenges.
So despite an anticipated abundance of resources and a high demand, there are still high costs, high risks and lengthy lead-times to be expected that could potentially delay or even stall any further development of oil fields in the Arctic.
One has thus to be careful in predicting if and when a significant increase in Arctic oil production is to be expected in the future.
Sources: US Geological Survey Energy Information Administration UArctic Eurasia review UArctic