XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

The development of the Russian oil and gas industry began in the mid-19th century with the development of oil deposits in the Northern Caucasus. The discovery and development of oil and gas deposits in the Volga, Urals, and Timan-Pechora areas led to a significant increase in the volumes of oil extraction in the first half of the 20th century. The development of major basins in Siberia, Timan-Pechora, the Caspian, and the Far East resulted in a record quantity of oil being extracted in 1988. Extraction levels fell at the beginning of the 1990s, but are now once again on the increase.

The Russian oil industry presents tremendous opportunities for firms, particularly in areas of engineering services, technical consulting and finance (raising capital, auditing).

Gas industry of the country is still a system-forming industry. It moves towards new economic relations following its own way, which is absolutely different from that of oilmen, coal miners or power engineers. The most important task set for the gas industry for the present is to be a reliable guarantor of supplying gas in required volumes, in due time and in due place both inside Russia and to European countries.

Pipeline transport

Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used. As for gases and liquids, any chemically stable substance can be sent through a pipeline. Therefore sewage, slurry, water, or even beer pipelines exist; but arguably the most valuable are those transporting fuels: oil, natural gas, and biofuels. Dmitri Mendeleev first suggested using a pipe for transporting petroleum in 1863.

Oil pipelines are made from steel or plastic tubes. Multi-product pipelines are used to transport two or more different products in sequence in the same pipeline. Usually in multi-product pipelines there is no physical separation between the different products. Some mixing of adjacent products occurs, producing interface. At the receiving facilities this interface is usually absorbed in one of the product based on pre-calculated absorption rates.

In general, pipelines can be classified in three categories depending on purpose: gathering pipelines (above ground, underground, underwater), transportation pipelines (gas pipeline, water pipe, steam pipe), distribution pipelines (trunk, technological, communal).

Natural gas: formation and composition

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons (primarily ethane). It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers. Most natural gas is created by two mechanisms: biogenic and thermogenic.

In the 19th century, natural gas was usually obtained as a byproduct of producing oil, since the small, light gas carbon chains came out of solution as the extracted fluids underwent pressure reduction from the reservoir to the surface, similar to uncapping a bottle of soda pop where the carbon dioxide effervesces. Unwanted natural gas was a disposal problem in the active oil fields. If there was not a market for natural gas near the wellhead it was virtually valueless since it had to be piped to the end user. In the 19th century and early 20th century, such unwanted gas usually was burned off in the oil fields. Today, unwanted gas (or 'stranded' gas without a market) associated with oil extraction often is returned to the reservoir with 'injection' wells while awaiting a possible future market or to repressurize the formation, which can enhance extraction rates from other wells. Another solution is to export the natural gas as a liquid. Gas-to-liquid (GTL) is a developing technology that converts stranded natural gas into synthetic gasoline, diesel or jet fuel through the Fischer-Tropsch process developed in World War II Germany. Such fuel can be transported to users through conventional pipelines and tankers. Proponents claim GTL burns cleaner than comparable petroleum fuels.

Natural gas processing

Raw natural gas comes primarily from any one of three types of wells: crude oil wells, gas wells, and condensate wells.

Natural-gas processing is a complex industrial process designed to clean raw natural gas by separating impurities and various non-methane hydrocarbons and fluids to produce what is known as pipeline quality dry natural gas. Natural-gas processing begins at the well head. The composition of the raw natural gas extracted from producing wells depends on the type, depth, and location of the underground deposit and the geology of the area. Oil and natural gas are often found together in the same reservoir. The natural gas produced from oil wells is generally classified as associated-dissolved, meaning that the natural gas is associated with or dissolved in crude oil. Natural gas production absent any association with crude oil is classified as “non-associated.”

Uses of natural gas

Natural gas is a major source of electricity generation through the use of gas turbines and steam turbines. Most grid peaking power plants and some off-grid engine-generators use natural gas. Particularly high efficiencies can be achieved through combining gas turbines with a steam turbine in combined cycle mode. Natural gas burns more cleanly than other hydrocarbon fuels, such as oil and coal, and produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy released.

References:

1. Helen Knight (12 June 2010). "Wonderfuel: Welcome to the age of unconventional gas". New Scientist. pp. 44–47.

2. "Interstate Natural Gas—Quality Specifications & Interchangeability" . Archived from the original on 12 August 2011.

3. Christopher J. Schenk (2012). "An Estimate of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources of the World". US Geological Survey.