This paper was prepared for the Society of Petroleum Engineers Gas Technology Symposium to be held in Omaha, Nebr. Sept. 15–16, 1966. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon requested to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made.
Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers Office. Such discussions may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.
The use of aquifers for storage of natural gas and peak shaving during temporary high demand periods has been practiced for 10 or 15 years. Most of the work in connection with production technology has been in the areas of well completion and reservoir characteristics.
This paper defines areas of surface production phases as wellhead, gathering system, and dehydration and reviews production equipment types used in these phases. Operating problems encountered are defined and design techniques used to overcome these problems are summarized. Economics of equipment costs., operations, and maintenance are presented where available.
Development of natural gas markets in the heavily populated areas of the northern and eastern sections of the United States has resulted in extensive efforts of obtaining higher yearly load factors from existing pipelines. Work in this direction has been particularly intense in the past 10 years because of rapidly escalating costs of installing new pipelines. The basic problem facing pipelines supplying new markets is one of supply and demand. Systems are alternately lightly and heavily loaded during corresponding periods of low and high gas sales which are usually associated with climatic conditions. This situation is particularly aggravated during periods of peak demand which, although occurring at more or less infrequent intervals during the year and for relatively short periods of time, require deliverability rates in excess of the capabilities of the pipeline and its ancillary equipment.
One of several methods to upgrade pipeline load factors is the utilization of aquifers as a storage reservoir. Gas is injected during periods of relatively light demand. During periods of heavy demands the aquifer reservoir is used to feed into the pipeline and supplement deliverability.
In most if not all cases gas is delivered to the aquifer by way of compression from a pipeline, and as such has been dehydrated and sweetened.
