Smaller gas reserves away from consumption points have historically been flared because their low volumes and/or large distance to end consumers make them economically unviable. However increase of energy prices, shifting towards natural gas use due to environmental concerns and technological advancement are motivating producers towards making the use of stranded gas for commercial use.
The estimate of stranded gas is currently 3,000 TCF across the globe and therefore represents billions of dollars in unutilized assets. Hence it is imperative to harness technological advances and design innovative schemes to bring this gas to the market and contribute towards achieving energy security. Various options are now available to use such stranded gas.
Scalable Transportation System - Floating CNG systems consists of a fleet of ships or barges that provide continuous gas delivery from offshore stranded gas fields to consumption centre. The fleet can be easily scaled up or down by adding or reducing the ships/barges, as desired. Producers can transport gas using such system that would otherwise be uneconomic by subsea pipeline and too small for LNG projects because the bulk capital invested here as floating assets, which can be redeployed.
Skid Mounted Small Scale Liquefaction Plant: Small scale LNG equipment placed near stranded gas wells and convert into LNG, and then transport in cryogenic form. It is an ideal monetization strategy for the gas sources in case of lower life as it provides enormous flexibility in terms of tapping such gas till its availability and then shifted towards another Gas reserves.
Small Power Plant at Gas Source: Gas Turbine Generators at gas source can commercially utilize stranded Gas either for local/captive use or by transmitting through grid, in case of low volume long life, as cost of transmission of power is much lowers than the cost of gas transmission.
