Developments in Natural Gas Processing

1. Background. 1.1. The occurrence of natural gas. 1.2. The role of natural gas in the energy market. 1.3. The UK/Norway/North Sea. 1.4. Relationship with oil production. 1.5. Petrochemical uses. 2. The Current Technology of Gas Processing. 2.1. Components and composition. 2.2. Gas sales specification. 2.3. The nature of gas processing. 2.4. Offshore production. 2.5. Individual processes - introduction. 2.6. Separation. 2.7. Water. 2.8. Hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide &ndsh; acid gas removal. 2.9. Removal of nitrogen. 2.10. Separation of the hydrocarbon components. 2.11. Sulphur production. 2.12. trace components. 2.13. Liquefaction. 2.14. Transportation. 2.15. Flaring and venting. 2.16. Process sequences. 2.17. Petrochemical uses. 2.18. Equipment. 3. Future Trends on Offshore Production. 3.1. Introduction. 3.2. Floating platforms. 3.3. Subsea production. 3.4. Dense phase pipelines. 3.5. Topsides weight reduction. 4. Gas Processing Problems, Opportunities and Recommended Actions. 4.1. Introduction. 4.2. Wave induced motion on floating platforms. 4.3. Multiphase pumping. 4.4. Multiphase flow. 4.5. Hydrates. 4.6. Flowline erosion. 4.7. Compact meter provers and multiphase metering. 4.8. Expert systems, process control and alarm systems. 4.9. Plate-fin heat exchangers in integrated designs. 4.10. HIGEE. 4.11. Dynamic simulation. 4.12. LNG plant cooling. 4.13. Dense phase pipelines. 4.14. Membranes. 4.15. Compact degasser. 4.16. Ejectors. 5. The Market. 5.1. Introduction. 5.2. The partners and the operator. 5.3. The operator and the contractor. 5.4. The contractor and the vendors. 5.5. Government departments. Appendices. I. References. II. Figures. III. Offshore sector production and processing data. IV. UK sector operations.