Transportation of gas

The inside of an LNG tanker are huge refrigirated components. Click to enlarge. (Photo: Gazprom)Natural gas is transported with pipelines. It can be stored for an indefinite time. The storage for gas are enormous, underground stations.

It is necessary to be able to control the usage, as it is not always needed immediately as it arrives. Gas usage is also more in the winter then in the summertime.

Pipelines come in various sizes, length and types. There are specific pipelines for gathering gas, the interstate pipelines and the distribution pipelines. The gathering lines transport raw gas from the wells to processor plants. This is the most delicate part of pipelines.

The interstate pipelines transport the processed natural gas from the processor plants to the storage facilities. The distribution lines take the gas to the consumers.

But what about when a pipeline is not close to a well, for example in the Arctic Ocean? Keeping in mind the enormous gas resources thought to be in the Arctic, there are no pipelines hundreds of kilometers to mainland's to gas wells underneath the ocean bed.

Then the LNG carriers enter the scene. These huge container ships transport the gas from offshore wells to the mainland.

Natural gas is actually temporarily converted into a liquid, to save space. 610 cubic feet of natural gas can be converted into a single cubic foot of LNG. The gas is cooled to -162° Celsius, where water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other impurities are also removed.

The gas is put in cryogenic equipped with refrigeration units. When the LNG carrier reaches its destination the liquid is simply heated up and the LNG transforms to gas again, and is put into storage or to a pipeline.