Benefits natural gas to economic development
It is estimated that more than 20 of the world’s energy supplies is obtained from natural gas.
Currently, Ghana, too, has huge deposits of natural gas which she can utilise for her economic development.
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Scientists believe that billions of years ago, natural gas was formed from the decay of plants and animals, including plankton, which lived in the sea.
They sank to the bottom of the sea, then they piled up. The dead plants and animals then were covered by layers of sand, mud and shells.
After many millions of years, they transformed into rocks.
They became drops of petroleum inside the layers of the rocks.
Later on, microbes, together with pressure from the accumulating sediment above, and heat from deep inside the earth below, converted the organic debris into fossil fuels like coal, gas and petroleum.
In time, much of the gas found its way into porous rocks, sometimes, forming vast reservoirs or gas fields that were sealed beneath a layer of rocks which are impermeable, Sometimes natural gas is found above petroleum.
Some fields are huge, containing trillions of cubic feet of gas.
Methods
Several methods are employed in the search for natural gas. Some of them are:
• Sensing satellites
• Global positioning system
• Reflection seismology, and
• Computers
Reflection seismology operates on the principle that sound reflects from layers of rock inside the earth, thus, giving scientists an acoustic picture of what lies underground.
The sound sources usually involves small explosives or vibrators which are fitted to special trucks.
The shock waves that results from this travel into the earth’s crust and are reflected back to waiting instruments which help the scientists’ computers
Models, rock formation
These models, then may indicate potential gas deposits.
Sensing satellites and global positioning system are similarly used to tract deposits of gas.
With regards to offshore exploration, sound waves are produced by special guns that shoot compressed air, steam or water into the sea.
The pressure waves resulting from this penetrate the sea bed and reflect back to hydrophones attached to a long cable towed behind the survey ship.
Researchers, then, use the computer signals obtained to form computer models for analysis.
Cost extracting gas
Since the extraction of the gas is expensive, it must be ensured that a field has sufficient gas to merit extraction.
Geologists, therefore, have to ascertain both the pressure and the volume of a reservoir.
Several methods are used to determine this. When there is a small drop in pressure, it is an indication of the existence of a large reservoir.
However, when the drop in pressure is large, it implies a small reservoir.
Making natural gas ready
After the natural gas has been extracted, it is piped to refineries for the removal of unwanted chemicals such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulphur dioxide.
Water vapor is also removed because it can corrode the pipeline. After this, natural gas is then distilled at a very low temperature to remove “in - combustible” nitrogen.
This is also done to recover valuables like (i) Helium (ii) butane (iii) ethane and (iv) propane.
After these processes, the final product is a colourless, odorless and highly combustible product known as Methane.
Since methane is a natural product, it is also called natural gas.
Uses
Natural gas domestic use has resulted in manufacturers adding tiny amounts of compounds containing pungent sulfur so that leaks can be easily detected, and safely stopped before an explosion occurs.
However, natural gas is a much cleaner fuel than other fossil fuels like coal and oil.
To ensure easy transportation, natural gas is chilled to a very low temperature and converted into liquefied natural gas which is well-known to those who use bottled gas for cooking.
L.P.G is also commonly used as fuel for buses, tractors, trucks, and other vehicles. It is also used in a gas stove, and for heating homes in temperate lands.
On the chemical front, butane and propane are used for plastics, solvents, synthetic fibers, and other organic products.
It is also used for fertiliser production and mineral processing.
The Atoabo gas plant should not only generate electricity from gas. There are numerous uses to which natural gas can be employed as stated above.
What is required is ingenuity on the part of Ghanaians with knowledge of petrochemicals to help with the establishment of petrochemical industries to exploit both our oil and huge natural gas resources.
The fertiliser industries can also benefit from its utilisation.
The institutes specialising in petro-chemicals should be expanded to absorb more students.
These should be equipped with entrepreneurial skills to enable them establish factories to utilise our oil and gas resources.
Can one imagine the employment opportunities to be generated for the teeming unemployed youth?
What about the revenue to accrue from natural gas for infrastructural development?
The writer is a retired teacher, Wudome Peki, Volta Region.