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61-658: The Easington Gas Terminal is one of six main gas terminals in the UK, and is situated on the North Sea coast at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire and Dimlington. The other main gas terminals are at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire ; Bacton, Norfolk ; Teesside ; Theddlethorpe , Lincolnshire and Rampside gas terminal , Barrow, Cumbria. The whole site consists of four plants: two run by Perenco , one by Centrica and one by Gassco . The Easington Gas Terminals are protected by Ministry of Defence Police officers and are provided with resources by

122-416: A depropanizer, a debutanizer and a butane splitter . The fractionation train typically uses a cryogenic low temperature distillation process involving expansion of the recovered NGL through a turbo-expander followed by distillation in a demethanizing fractionating column . Some gas processing plants use lean oil absorption process rather than the cryogenic turbo-expander process. The gaseous feed to

183-410: A refinery . Fractionation aims to produce useful products including natural gas suitable for piping to industrial and domestic consumers; liquefied petroleum gases (Propane and Butane) for sale; and gasoline feedstock for liquid fuel blending. The recovered NGL stream is processed through a fractionation train consisting of up to five distillation towers in series: a demethanizer , a deethanizer ,

244-524: A specific gravity ranging from 0.5 to 0.8, and is composed of hydrocarbons such as propane , butane , pentane , and hexane . Natural gas compounds with more than two carbon atoms exist as liquids at ambient temperatures and pressures. Propane , butane , and isobutane are liquid at normal temperatures only under pressure. Additionally, condensate may contain: There are hundreds of different equipment configurations to separate natural gas condensate from raw natural gas. The schematic flow diagram to

305-465: A byproduct of natural gas extraction. It is also known as "condensate", "natural gasoline", "casing head gas", "raw gas", "white gas" and "liquid gold". Drip gas is defined in the United States Code of Federal Regulations as consisting of butane , pentane , and hexane hydrocarbons . Within set ranges of distillation , drip gas may be extracted and used to denature fuel alcohol. Drip gas

366-424: A function of a pipeline system's design and the markets that it serves. In general, the standards specify that the natural gas: January February March November October September August The natural gas should: There are a variety of ways in which to configure the various unit processes used in the treatment of raw natural gas. The block flow diagram below is a generalized, typical configuration for

427-722: A large amount of gas under the North Sea. Unfortunately the rig sank in December later that year, when it capsized. The Forties and Brent oilfields were discovered later in 1970 and 1971 respectively. Since October 2006, gas has been brought into the UK direct from the Norwegian Sleipner gas field via the Langeled pipeline , the world's longest subsea pipeline before the completion of the Nord Stream pipeline, owned by Gassco which itself

488-595: A liquid state if the temperature is reduced to below the hydrocarbon dew point temperature at a set pressure. The natural gas condensate is also called condensate , or gas condensate , or sometimes natural gasoline because it contains hydrocarbons within the gasoline boiling range, and is also referred to by the shortened name condy by many workers on gas installations. Raw natural gas used to create condensate may come from any type of gas well such as: There are many condensate sources, and each has its own unique gas condensate composition. In general, gas condensate has

549-732: A mention in Terrence Malick's movie Badlands . Drip gas was sold commercially at gas stations and hardware stores in North America until the early 1950s. The white gas sold today is a similar product but is produced at refineries with the carcinogen benzene removed. In 1975, the New Mexico State Police's drip gas detail – three men in pickup trucks – began patrolling oil and gas fields, catching thieves and recovering barrels of stolen gas. The detail stopped its work in 1987. The use of drip gas in cars and trucks

610-406: A range of performance and environmental constraints of the amine process, a newer technology based on the use of polymeric membranes to separate the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the natural gas stream has gained increasing acceptance. Membranes are attractive since no reagents are consumed. The acid gases, if present, are removed by membrane or amine treating and can then be routed into

671-581: A sulfur recovery unit which converts the hydrogen sulfide in the acid gas into either elemental sulfur or sulfuric acid. Of the processes available for these conversions, the Claus process is by far the most well known for recovering elemental sulfur, whereas the conventional Contact process and the WSA ( Wet sulfuric acid process ) are the most used technologies for recovering sulfuric acid . Smaller quantities of acid gas may be disposed of by flaring. The residual gas from

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732-420: Is NGL at 20 barg which is fed to the deethanizer.   The overhead product from the deethanizer is ethane and the bottoms are fed to the depropanizer. The overhead product from the depropanizer is propane and the bottoms are fed to the debutanizer. The overhead product from the debutanizer is a mixture of normal and iso-butane, and the bottoms product is a C 5 + gasoline mixture. The operating conditions of

793-400: Is also used as a cleaner and solvent as well as a lantern and stove fuel. Some early internal combustion engines —such as the first types made by Karl Benz , and early Wright brothers aircraft engines—used natural gasoline , which could be either drip gas or a similar range of hydrocarbons distilled from crude oil. Natural gasoline has an octane rating of about 30 to 50, sufficient for

854-691: Is at the Perenco Easington site is the connection to the National Transmission System . Gas flows from the Easington terminal via a 24-inch diameter, 90-mile (140 km) pipeline known as Feeder No 1 across the Humber to Totley near Sheffield. Perenco Easington used to compress gas as well, but from 2007–9, the construction of the £125 million Onshore Compression and Terminal Integration Project (OCTIP) situated all compression and processing from

915-427: Is called acid gas . Raw natural gas typically consists primarily of methane (CH 4 ) and ethane (C 2 H 6 ), the shortest and lightest hydrocarbon molecules. It often also contains varying amounts of: Raw natural gas must be purified to meet the quality standards specified by the major pipeline transmission and distribution companies. Those quality standards vary from pipeline to pipeline and are usually

976-522: Is collected from the Hyde, Hoton, Newsham and West Sole natural gas fields . It can process up to 300 m cubic feet of gas per day. A gas turbine power generator is used to compress the gas. Dimlington is the larger site of the four. The natural gas condensate is transferred to the Dimlington terminal. Dimlington also processes dry gas from the (former) Cleeton, Ravenspurn South, Ravenspurn North, Johnston,

1037-424: Is dangerous for crew due to the danger of explosions, oxygen displacement and the threat of asphyxiating and anaesthetizing, which can occur within a few human breaths. Because condensate is typically liquid in ambient conditions and also has very low viscosity, condensate is often used to dilute highly viscous heavier oils that cannot otherwise be efficiently transported via pipelines . In particular, condensate

1098-422: Is frequently mixed with bitumen from oil sands to create dilbit . In 2013, the increased use of condensate as diluent significantly increased its price in certain regions. Drip gas , so named because it can be drawn off the bottom of small chambers (called drips ) sometimes installed in pipelines from gas wells, is another name for natural-gas condensate, a naturally occurring form of gasoline obtained as

1159-570: Is owned by the Kingdom of Norway. The sites are run by and gas is produced by Perenco (after BP sold its operations to them in 2012), Gassco and Centrica Storage Ltd. Gas can be transferred to and from the Centrica Storage plant at Easington dependent on grid demand. The control of the Perenco sites takes place at the Dimlington site, and conditioning of the gas also takes place there. The function that

1220-417: Is then removed by using adsorption processes (as shown in the flow diagram) such as activated carbon or regenerable molecular sieves . Although not common, nitrogen is sometimes removed and rejected using one of the three processes indicated on the flow diagram: The NGL fractionation process treats offgas from the separators at an oil terminal or the overhead fraction from a crude distillation column in

1281-526: Is used as a storage facility, for essentially the whole of the UK, giving four days worth of gas. Originally owned by BG Storage Ltd (BGSL), who were bought by Dynegy Europe Ltd in November 2001 for £421 million. BGSL became known as Dynegy Storage Ltd, based in Solihull . This company was bought by Centrica on 14 November 2002 for £304 million. Centrica was essentially buying the Easington plant. To operate

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1342-428: Is usually then transported to an oil refinery and the water is treated and disposed of as wastewater. The raw gas is then piped to a gas processing plant where the initial purification is usually the removal of acid gases (hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide). There are several processes available for that purpose as shown in the flow diagram, but amine treating is the process that was historically used. However, due to

1403-715: The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure . BP Easington Terminal opened in March 1967. This was the first time that North Sea Gas had been brought ashore in the UK from the West Sole field . In 1980 British Gas purchased the field Rough and in 1983 began conversion to a storage field. BP Dimlington opened in October 1988. BP's Ravenspurn North field was added in 1990 and the Johnston field

1464-620: The Easington Catchment Area (Neptune and Mercury), and the Juno development (Whittle, Wollaston, Minerva and Apollo) gas fields. The Dimlington site has the control room for all of Perenco's gas fields that ship gas to the Easington site. Dimlington can handle up to 950m cubic feet of gas per day. All sites are a considerable fire hazard, so have large water reservoirs for fire fighting containing about one million and three million litres of water each. Cleeton and Ravenspurn South form part of

1525-628: The Villages Complex . Both were discovered in 1976. Gas production began in April 1987. Production stopped in 1999. Now used as a hub for the Easington Catchment Area. Named after the scientist, Claud E. Cleeton . Discovered in April 1983, 43 miles (70 km) off the East Riding of Yorkshire coast. Gas production began in October 1989. Gas via Cleeton to Dimlington. Named after Ravenspurn ,

1586-540: The Amethyst field. Named after Helvellyn in Cumbria. Discovered in March 1998. Owned and operated by Centrica with the gas pumped back to Easington via the Amethyst field. The operation started in 2004 and was plugged and abandoned in 2015. Gas terminal Raw natural gas comes primarily from three types of wells: crude oil wells , gas wells, and condensate wells . Crude oil and natural gas are often found together in

1647-486: The Claus process is commonly called tail gas and that gas is then processed in a tail gas treating unit (TGTU) to recover and recycle residual sulfur-containing compounds back into the Claus unit. Again, as shown in the flow diagram, there are a number of processes available for treating the Claus unit tail gas and for that purpose a WSA process is also very suitable since it can work autothermally on tail gases. The next step in

1708-840: The Humber. It is a faulted dome whose maximum dimensions are about 12 by 3 miles (19.3 by 4.8 km) wide, lying at a depth of 9,000 feet (2,700 m). The reservoir comprises about 400 feet (120 m) of Permian Rotliegendes sandstone, and the gas has a high methane content and low nitrogen (1.3%). Gas first produced in March 1967. It had initial recoverable reserves of 61 billion m. Owned and operated by BP until 2012. Acquired by Perenco 2012 Discovered in May 1982. Gas first produced in August 1993. Was owned 55% by BP and 45% by Statoil. BP took control in January 1997, in exchange for its Jupiter gas field. Discovered in October 1989. Production began March 1996. Enters

1769-446: The NGL fractionation plant is typically compressed to about 60 barg and 37 °C. The feed is cooled to -22 °C, by exchange with the demethanizer overhead product and by a refrigeration system and is split into three streams: The overhead product is mainly methane at 20 bar and -98 °C. This is heated and compressed to yield a sales gas at 20 bar and 40 °C. The bottom product

1830-429: The NGL stream is instead transported as a mixed product to standalone fractionation complexes located near refineries or chemical plants that use the components for feedstock . In case laying pipeline is not possible for geographical reason, or the distance between source and consumer exceed 3000 km, natural gas is then transported by ship as LNG ( liquefied natural gas ) and again converted into its gaseous state in

1891-664: The Norfolk chemist. Whittle was discovered in July 1990, and named after Frank Whittle . These fields are around 43 miles (70 km) off the East Riding of Yorkshire coast. These fields are connected to the national grid by BP and Rough Terminals. Some of these were one of the 'Villages' gas fields; named after villages lost to the sea along the Holderness coast. These villages include: Cleeton, Dimlington, Hoton, Hyde, Newsham and Ravenspurn. Discovered in December 1965, 42 miles (68 km) east of

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1952-486: The United States contains concentrations of helium from 0.3% to 1.9%, which is separated out as a valuable byproduct. Natural gas condensate Natural-gas condensate , also called natural gas liquids , is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields . Some gas species within the raw natural gas will condense to

2013-589: The West Sole pipeline. Owned and operated by BP. Discovered in February 1977. Gas first produced in December 2001. Owned and operated by BP. Named after Hoton, one of the East Riding of Yorkshire lost villages that fell into the sea due to coastal erosion. Amethyst East discovered in October 1972 and Amethyst West in April 1970. Owned 59.5% by BP, 24% by BG Group, 9% by Centrica, and 7.5% by Murphy. Amethyst East began in October 1990 and Amethyst West in July 1992. Control of

2074-528: The buyers equipment. When an upset occurs on the treatment plant buyers can usually refuse to accept the gas, lower the flow rate or re-negotiate the price. If the gas has significant helium content, the helium may be recovered by fractional distillation . Natural gas may contain as much as 7% helium, and is the commercial source of the noble gas. For instance, the Hugoton Gas Field in Kansas and Oklahoma in

2135-429: The composition of natural gas according to the type, depth, and location of the underground deposit and the geology of the area. Natural gas when relatively free of hydrogen sulfide is called sweet gas ; natural gas that contains elevated hydrogen sulfide levels is called sour gas ; natural gas, or any other gas mixture, containing significant quantities of hydrogen sulfide or carbon dioxide or similar acidic gases,

2196-401: The dry gas directly to a pipeline or gas plant without undergoing any separation processIng allowing immediate use . Natural-gas processing begins underground or at the well-head. In a crude oil well, natural gas processing begins as the fluid loses pressure and flows through the reservoir rocks until it reaches the well tubing. In other wells, processing begins at the wellhead which extracts

2257-421: The field Centrica has to comply with a set of undertakings laid down by DECC and Ofgem due to its unique position in the UK gas market. Owned and operated by Centrica. Gas back to Centrica Rough Terminal via new pipeline. Discovered in February 1985 with the first gas coming on stream in 2004. Operated by ATP Oil and Gas . Owned 50% by ATP Oil & Gas (UK) Ltd and First Oil Expro Ltd. Gas back to Easington via

2318-464: The first gas being brought ashore in August 2010. Gas will be transported via West Sole to Dimlington. Owned 40% by Dana Petroleum (E&P) Ltd, 47% by E.ON Ruhrgas UK EU Ltd and 13% by Centrica Resources Ltd. Named after the mathematician, Charles Babbage . Consists of Neptune and Mercury fields. Operated by BG Group . Transported to Dimlington via BP's Cleeton. Mercury discovered in February 1983 and production started in November 1999. Named after

2379-715: The former coastal town. Owned and operated by Perenco. Discovered in October 1984 and developed in April 1988 by Hamilton Brothers. First gas produced in October 1989, and BP took over the operatorship of the field from BHP on 12 January 1998. Gas via Cleeton to Dimlington. Operated by Perenco and owned mostly by them, with smaller parts owned by Centrica Resources Ltd and E.ON Ruhrgas UK EU Ltd. Operated by E.ON Ruhrgas , and previously to them, Caledonia EU, and also by Consort EU Ltd. Discovered in April 1990. Gas first produced in October 1994. Pipeline to Dimlington via Ravenspurn North and Cleeton. Owned 50% by Dana Petroleum (E&P) Ltd and E.ON Ruhrgas UK EU Ltd. Discovered in 1989 with

2440-422: The fuel. Most were also equipped with thermosiphon cooling systems that used no water pumps. Natural convection allowed the water to flow up and out of the engine block and into the top of the radiator, where it cooled and dropped and fell to continue the cycle. Woody Guthrie 's autobiographical novel Seeds of Man begins with Woody and his uncle Jeff tapping a natural gas pipeline for drip gas. The gas also has

2501-492: The gas fields at the Dimlington site. As part of the facility, two RB211-GT61 gas turbines, built by Rolls-Royce Energy Systems in Mount Vernon, Ohio , were installed in a £12.7 million contract. The Rough (facility) is a partially depleted offshore gas field that was converted for storage by British Gas. It is currently operated by Centrica Storage Ltd (a subsidiary of Centrica). The Rough Terminal also processes gas for

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2562-404: The gas processing plant is to remove water vapor from the gas using either the regenerable absorption in liquid triethylene glycol (TEG), commonly referred to as glycol dehydration , deliquescent chloride desiccants, and or a Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) unit which is regenerable adsorption using a solid adsorbent. Other newer processes like membranes may also be considered. Mercury

2623-419: The heavy fuel would flow to the carburetor. Shutters or curtains were typically used to restrict airflow to the radiator, keeping the engine sufficiently hot for efficient operation. Coolant temperatures in the 200 degree F range were normal. John Deere two-cylinder all-fuel tractors worked well on heavy fuel, as their long piston strokes, slow engine speeds and low compression ratios allowed for effective use of

2684-411: The heavy fuel. They were equipped with a small gasoline tank and a large fuel tank, both of which fed into a common valve supplying the fuel to the carburetor. The engine would be started on gasoline and the tractor would then be worked until the engine was sufficiently warm to change over. At that point, the fuel valve would be turned to switch the fuel supply from the gasoline tank to the fuel tank and

2745-493: The high and low pressure separators may need to be processed to remove hydrogen sulfide ( H 2 S ) before the water can be disposed of underground or reused in some fashion. Some of the raw natural gas may be re-injected into the producing formation to help maintain the reservoir pressure, or for storage pending later installation of a pipeline. Natural gas condensate is generally more flammable and explosive than normal crude oil. Operating in areas where condensate has escaped

2806-561: The low pressure separator is sent to a "booster" compressor that raises the gas pressure and sends it through a cooler, and then to the main gas compressor. At the raw natural gas processing plant, the gas will be dehydrated and acid gases and other impurities will be removed from the gas. Then, the ethane ( C 2 ), propane ( C 3 ), butanes ( C 4 ), and pentanes ( C 5 )—plus higher molecular weight hydrocarbons referred to as C 5+ —will also be removed and recovered as byproducts. The water removed from both

2867-461: The low-compression engines of the early 20th century. By 1930, improved engines and higher compression ratios required higher-octane, refined gasolines to produce power without knocking or detonation. Beginning in the Great Depression , drip gas was used as a replacement for commercial gasoline by people in oil-producing areas. "In the days of simple engines in automobiles and farm tractors it

2928-625: The newly developed York field. The Rough Terminal used to receive gas from the Amethyst gasfield which was until 1988 owned by Britoil but this is now processed by Perenco. Since 2013 The Rough Terminal has also processed gas from the York field on behalf of Centrica Energy. The Langeled pipeline, which is controlled at the UK end by Gassco (Centrica Storage Ltd before 2011), can transfer up to 2,500 m cubic feet of gas per day from Nyhamna in Norway. The gas

2989-420: The operating pressure of and the distance to the raw natural gas processing plant and may require a multi-stage compressor. The gas condensate from the high pressure separator flows through a throttling control valve to a low pressure separator. The reduction in pressure across the control valve causes the condensate to undergo a partial vaporization referred to as flash vaporization . The raw natural gas from

3050-499: The planet Mercury . 73% owned by BG Group. Neptune discovered in November 1985 and production started in November 1999. Named after the planet Neptune . 79% owned by BG Group. These are the most recent of the Dimlington gas fields. Named after Juno , the Roman goddess. BG Group operates the Minerva, Apollo and Artemis fields, and owns 65% of these fields. Production started in 2003. Artemis

3111-402: The platform is entirely from Dimlington and therefore operated by BP. Comprises the Amethyst gasfield . Acquired by Perenco 2012 Discovered in May 1968. It had initial recoverable reserves of 14 billion m. Gas production began in 1975, and it was bought by British Gas in 1980. In 1983, they decided to convert it into gas storage. The gas storage started February 1985. As a depleted gas field, it

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3172-400: The processing of raw natural gas from non-associated gas wells showing how raw natural gas is processed into sales gas piped to the end user markets. and various byproducts: Raw natural gas is commonly collected from a group of adjacent wells and is first processed in a separator vessels at that collection point for removal of free liquid water and natural gas condensate . The condensate

3233-409: The right depicts just one of the possible configurations. The raw natural gas feedstock from a gas well or a group of wells is cooled to lower the gas temperature to below its hydrocarbon dew point at the feedstock pressure. This condenses a large part of the gas condensate hydrocarbons. The feedstock mixture of gas, liquid condensate and water is then routed to a high pressure separator vessel where

3294-444: The same reservoir. Natural gas produced in wells with crude oil is generally classified as associated-dissolved gas as the gas had been associated with or dissolved in crude oil . Natural gas production not associated with crude oil is classified as “non-associated.” In 2009, 89 percent of U.S. wellhead production of natural gas was non-associated. Non-associated gas wells producing a dry gas in terms of condensate and water can send

3355-425: The tractors were referred to as "all-fuel". The most important factor in burning heavy fuels in a spark-ignition engine is proper fuel vaporization. Tractors designed to run on those fuels usually used a "hot" intake air manifold that allowed exhaust heat to warm the manifold and carburetor to aid vaporization. Given the poor vaporization at low temperatures, all-fuel tractors were started on gasoline, then switched to

3416-475: The vessels in the NGL fractionation train are typically as follows. A typical composition of the feed and product is as follows. The recovered streams of propane, butanes and C 5 + may be "sweetened" in a Merox process unit to convert undesirable mercaptans into disulfides and, along with the recovered ethane, are the final NGL by-products from the gas processing plant. Currently, most cryogenic plants do not include fractionation for economic reasons, and

3477-563: The vicinity of the consumer. The residue gas from the NGL recovery section is the final, purified sales gas which is pipelined to the end-user markets. Rules and agreements are made between buyer and seller regarding the quality of the gas. These usually specify the maximum allowable concentration of CO 2 , H 2 S and H 2 O as well as requiring the gas to be commercially free from objectionable odours and materials, and dust or other solid or liquid matter, waxes, gums and gum forming constituents, which might damage or adversely affect operation of

3538-404: The water and the raw natural gas are separated and removed. If a pressure boost is required, the raw natural gas from the high pressure separator is sent to the main gas compressor , which raises the pressure of the gases to whatever pressure is required for the pipeline transportation of the gas to the raw natural gas processing plant. The main gas compressor discharge pressure will depend upon

3599-510: Was added in 1994. The Easington Catchment Area was added in 2000, and the Juno development in 2003. Up to 20% of the winter peak demand for gas is exported from Easington via Feeder 9 through the Humber Gas Tunnel . Britain's first oil rig, the Sea Gem , first discovered gas in the North Sea on 20 August 1965. It was not a large enough field, but at the time it was not even known that there was

3660-546: Was discovered in August 1974, and named after Artemis the Greek hunter goddess. Apollo was discovered in July 1987, named after Apollo the Greek sungod, brother of Artemis. Minerva was discovered in January 1969, named after the Roman goddess Minerva . BP operates the Whittle and Wollaston fields. They are 30% owned by BG Group. Production started in 2002. Wollaston was discovered in April 1989, and named after William Hyde Wollaston ,

3721-603: Was not uncommon for anyone having access to a condensate well to fill his tank with 'drip,'" according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. Sometimes it worked fine. "At other times it might cause thundering backfires and clouds of foul-smelling smoke." Certain manufacturers such as John Deere made farm tractors specifically designed to run on heavy, low-octane fuels which were commonly called " distillate " or "tractor fuel". Other names were tractor vaporising oil (United Kingdom) and "power kerosene" (Australia). Often

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