STORAGE OF NATURAL GAS AND ITS COMPONENTS

Introduction
In the past, the natural gas which was recovered in the course of recovering petroleum could not be profitably sold, and was simply burned at the oil field in a process known as flaring. Flaring is now illegal in many countries. Additionally, companies now recognize that gas may be sold to consumers in the form of LNG or CNG, or through other transportation methods. Storage was used to serve as a buffer between transportation and distribution, to ensure adequate supplies were in place for seasonal demand shifts, and unexpected demand surges.

Natural gas Storage

Traditionally, natural gas has been a seasonal fuel. That is, demand for natural gas is usually higher during the winter, partly because it is used for heat in residential and commercial settings. Stored natural gas plays a vital role in ensuring that any excess supply delivered during the summer months is available to meet the increased demand of the winter months. The gas is now re-injected into the formation for later recovery. The reinjection also assists oil pumping by keeping underground pressures higher. Natural gas is often stored underground inside depleted gas reservoirs from previous gas wells, salt domes, or in tanks as liquefied natural gas. The gas is injected in a time of low demand and extracted when demand picks up. Storage nearby end users helps to meet volatile demands, but such storage may not always be practicable.
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1. Depleted Gas Reservoirs

The most prominent and common form of underground storage consists of depleted gas reservoirs. Depleted reservoirs are those formations that have already been tapped of all their recoverable natural gas. This leaves an underground formation, geologically capable of holding natural gas. In addition, using an already developed reservoir for storage purposes allows the use of the extraction and distribution equipment left over from when the field was productive. Having this extraction network in place reduces the cost of converting a depleted reservoir into a storage facility. Depleted reservoirs are also attractive because their geological characteristics are already well known. Of the three types of underground storage, depleted reservoirs, on average, are the cheapest and easiest to develop, operate, and maintain.

2. Aquifers
Aquifers are underground porous, permeable rock formations that act as natural water reservoirs. However, in certain situations, these water containing formations may be reconditioned and used as natural gas storage facilities. As they are more expensive to develop than depleted reservoirs, these types of storage facilities are usually used only in areas where there are no nearby depleted reservoirs. Aquifers are the least desirable and most expensive type of natural gas storage facility as, the geological characteristics of aquifer formations are not as thoroughly known, as with depleted reservoirs. A significant amount of time and money goes into discovering the geological characteristics of an aquifer, and determining its suitability as a natural gas storage facility.

3. Salt caverns
Salt caverns are formed out of existing underground salt deposits that may exist in two possible forms: salt domes, and salt beds.
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Salt domes are thick formations created from natural salt deposits that, over time, leach up through overlying sedimentary layers to form large dome-type structures. Salt beds are shallower, thinner formations. Because salt beds are wide, thin formations, once a salt cavern is introduced, they are more prone to deterioration, and may also be more expensive to develop than salt domes. The walls of a salt cavern also have the structural strength of steel, which makes it very resilient against reservoir degradation over the life of the storage facility.

LNG Storage
LNG must be maintained cold (at least below 117 F or 83 C) to remain a liquid, independent of pressure. There will inevitably be some degree of boil-off as a result of heat gained from the outside ambient atmosphere. This gas may be returned to storage by recompression and reliquefaction, or used in the liquefaction process. When gas is cooled to -160C (-260F), NG becomes liquid and is much more compact-occupying 1/600 of its gas volume. Where long overseas distances are involved, transporting NG in its liquid state is more economical. The LNG industry is set for a large and sustained expansion as improved technology has reduced transportation costs of formerly stranded NG reserves as a liquid to consumer markets. LNG above-ground tanks are mainly of double-wall, high-nickel steel construction with extremely efficient insulation between the walls. Large tanks are low aspect ratio (height to width) and cylindrical in design with a domed roof. Storage pressures in these tanks are very low, less than 5 psig. Sometimes more expensive frozen-earth, underground storage is used.
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Pre-stressed concrete backed up with suitable thermal insulation, are designed to be both under and above ground to suit sites conditions and local safety regulations and requirements. Smaller quantities, 190,000 US gallons (700 m) and less, are stored in horizontal or vertical, vacuumjacketed, pressure vessels. These tanks may be at pressures anywhere from less than 5 psig to over 250 psig (35 to 1700 kPa gauge pressure).

15.000 gallon LNG storage tank

LPG Storage
The most common type of pressure storage is the spherical low-pressure tank, which is a sphere on individual support columns. The liquefied petroleum gas should be stored at spherical storage tanks to get a uniformed pressure at every point of the surface exposed to the liquid. It could be fabricated from carbon steel which fit the storing of both LPG and propane. Also it could be designed to store different capacities and pressure of liquid. The production line from bottom passing internally by a tube on the top, which allows spray filling above the liquid level. Both inlet and outlet lines to the spheres should have remote shut in valves. Transfer pumps installed to dispatch the stored liquids.

Condensate Tank
The condensate produced from the debutanizer column, after being cooled is stored in condensate tanks with required capacity. The condensate tanks could be floating roof tanks or horizontal pressurized vessel according to the condensate vapor pressure. The stored condensate shall be exported for further processing. The condensate storage bullets have remote shut down valves on both inlet and outlet lines. Low level switches are installed on vessels to stop the transfer pumps and high level switch to isolate the vessels on high level.