When was gas first discovered

Most of the reserves are in the Middle East , with 2, tcf in , or 40 percent of total world reserves. Russia has the second-highest amount of proven reserves, with 1, tcf in That year, the United States consumed a little more than 24, bcf, the most of any nation.

From a single vertical drill, the well is limited to the gas reserves it encounters. Hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and acidizing are processes to expand the amount of gas that a well can access, and thus increase its productivity. However, these practices can have negative environmental consequences. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process that splits open rock formations with high-pressure streams of water, chemicals, and sand.

The sand props open the rocks, which allows gas to escape and be stored or transported. The process produces highly toxic and frequently radioactive waste water that, if mismanaged, can leak and contaminate underground water sources used for drinking, hygiene , and industrial and agricultural use. In addition, fracking can cause micro- earthquake s. Most of these temblor s are far too tiny to be felt on the surface, but some geologists and environmentalists warn that the quakes may cause structural damage to buildings or underground networks of pipes and cables.

Due to these negative environmental effects, fracking has been criticized and banned in some areas. In other areas, fracking is a lucrative economic opportunity and providing a reliable source of energy.

Horizontal drilling is a way of increasing the area of a well without creating multiple expensive and environmentally sensitive drilling sites. Acidizing is a process of dissolving acidic components and inserting them into the natural gas well, which dissolves rock that may be blocking the flow of gas. After natural gas is extracted, it is most frequently transported through pipelines that can be from 2 to 60 inches in diameter.

The continental United States has more than pipeline systems that are made up of , kilometers , miles of transmission pipelines that transfer gas to all 48 states. This system requires more than 1, compressor stations to ensure that the gas continues on its path, underground storage facilities, 11, locations to deliver the gas, and 5, locations to receive the gas.

It can easily be stored and transported places that do not have pipelines. If any of the LNG vaporizes, it is vented out of the storage area and used to power the transport vessel. However, the U. Consuming Natural Gas Although natural gas takes millions of years to develop, its energy has only been harnessed during the past few thousand years.

Around BCE, Chinese engineers made use of natural gas seeping out of the Earth by building bamboo pipelines. These pipes transported gas to heat water. In the late s, British companies provided natural gas to light streetlamps and homes. Today, natural gas is used in countless ways for industrial, commercial, residential, and transportation purposes. In residential homes, the most popular use for natural gas is heating and cooking. It is used to power home appliances such as stoves, air conditioners, space heaters, outdoor lights, garage heaters, and clothes dryers.

Natural gas is also used on a larger scale. In commercial settings, such as restaurants and shopping malls, it is an extremely efficient and economical way to power water heaters, space heaters, dryers, and stoves.

Natural gas is used to heat, cool, and cook in industrial settings, as well. However, it is also used in a variety of processes such as waste treatment, food processing, and refining metals, stone, clay, and petroleum. Natural gas can also be used as an alternative fuel for cars, buses, trucks, and other vehicles. Currently, there are more than 5 million natural gas vehicles NGV worldwide, and more than , in the United States.

Although NGVs initially cost more than gas-powered vehicles, they are cheaper to re-fuel and are the cleanest-running vehicles in the world. Gasoline- and diesel -powered vehicles emit harmful and toxic substances including arsenic , nickel, and nitrogen oxides.

In contrast, NGVs may emit minute amounts of propane or butane, but release 70 percent less carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. Using the new technology of fuel cell s, the energy from natural gas is also used to generate electricity. Instead of burning natural gas for energy, fuel cells generate electricity with electrochemical reactions.

These reactions produce water, heat, and electricity without any other byproducts or emissions. Scientists are still researching this method of producing electricity in order to affordably apply it to electric products. Natural Gas and the Environment Natural gas usually needs to be processed before it can be used. When it is extracted, natural gas can contain a variety of elements and compounds other than methane. Water, ethane, butane, propane, pentanes, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and occasionally helium and nitrogen may be present in a natural gas well.

In order to be used for energy, the methane is processed and separated from the other components. The gas that is used for energy in our homes is almost pure methane. Like other fossil fuels, natural gas can be burned for energy. In fact, it is the cleanest-burning fuel, meaning it releases very few byproducts.

When fossil fuels are burned, they can release or emit different elements, compounds, and solid particles. Coal and oil are fossil fuels with very complex molecular formations, and contain a high amount of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur.

When they are burned, they release high amounts of harmful emissions, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particles that drift into the atmosphere and contribute to air pollution. In contrast, the methane in natural gas has a simple molecular make-up: CH4. When it is burned, it emits only carbon dioxide and water vapor. Humans exhale the same two components when we breathe.

Carbon dioxide and water vapor, along with other gases such as ozone and nitrous oxide, are known as greenhouse gas es. The increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are linked to global warming and could have disastrous environmental consequences.

Although burning natural gas still emits greenhouse gases, it emits almost 30 percent less CO2 than oil, and 45 percent less CO2 than coal. Safety As with any extractive activity, drilling for natural gas can lead to leaks.

If the drill hits an unexpected high-pressure pocket of natural gas, or the well is damaged or ruptures, the leak can be immediately hazardous. Because natural gas dissapates so quickly into the air, it does not always cause an explosion or burn. However, the leaks are an environmental hazard that also leak mud and oil into the surrounding areas.

If hydraulic fracturing was used to expand a well, the chemicals from that process can contaminate local aquatic habitats and drinking water with highly radioactive materials.

The uncontained methane released in the air can also force people to temporary evacuate the area. Leaks can also occur slowly over time. Until the s, cast iron was a popular choice for distribution pipelines, but it allows a high amount of natural gas to escape. The cast iron pipes become leaky after years of freeze-thaw cycles, heavy overhead traffic, and strains from the naturally shifting soil.

Methane leaks from these distribution pipelines make up more than 30 percent of the methane emmissions in the U. Today, pipelines are made out of a variety of metals and plastics to reduce leakage. Piping Up The United states has , kilometers , miles of interstate and intrastate pipelines to deliver natural gas all over the country. Oracular Seeps Natural gas seeps, where the gas flows naturally to the surface, were revered as supernatural or spiritual sites by many ancient civilizations.

One of the most famous of these seeps sits atop Mount Parnassus, near the town of Delphi, Greece. Around BCE, religious and spiritual leaders established a temple with a priestess who could tell the future.

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Also in Coal explained Coal Mining and transportation Where our coal comes from Imports and exports How much coal is left Use of coal Prices and outlook Coal and the environment. The first oil well known to tap oil at its source using this method was drilled by the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Edwin Drake was put in charge of developing oil industry potential in the area.

It was Edwin Drake who had engaged William Smith, a well-regarded salt driller, to come to Titusville to oversee the drilling of the first oil well. This first oil well was successfully drilled on August 27, The success of this first oil well in Titusville would set off historical events, including the rapid formation of the Standard Oil Company.

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world estimated to be trillion barrels. This represents United States 35,,, 2. Kerosine burned more cleanly than whale oil, the dominant illumination fuel at the time.

Russia would eclipse as the dominant producer by the s. Doheny drills the first oil well in Los Angeles. Within five years there would be oil wells and two hundred oil companies in the area. The well-known Spindletop actually named the Lucas No. This discovery near Beaumont, Texas would set off the oil industry boom in Texas. The monopoly would become thirty-four separate companies. The s — Oil prices spike. The effectiveness and explosion of oil production in the US due to advancements in hydraulic fracturing leads to a global glut in oil supplies.

The US lifts oil export ban that has been in place to strategically protect domestic oil reserves. The impending oil price collapse would eventually lead to consolidation among oil industry producers. This animation, based on data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, shows the history of oil prices dating from , around the time oil was discovered in Pennsylvania to By this time, the monopoly of Standard Oil had dominated the market for both oil and refined products, leading to a period of price stability although not great for competition.

The fact that oil prices stayed so low for so long may be a better indicator of the profits Standard Oil reaped from refined products than what you might think was a lack of demand. The second era in the history of oil prices shows almost no volatility or real price appreciation for almost years, despite the well-documented demand growth from the industrial revolution. Finally, the current volatile era of oil prices began in with the Arab Oil Embargo, the formation of OPEC, the evolution of hydraulic fracturing, and lasts to today.

To understand how the oil and gas industry works , it is also important to understand how it has changed over time. The key factor in the industry development is who controls the key asset, the oil and gas reserves.

John D. Today ExxonMobil is the successor company to Standard Oil. While Rockefeller was building his U. In search of a global transportation network to market their kerosene, the Rothschilds commissioned the first oil tankers from a British trader, Marcus Samuel.

The first of these tankers was named the Murex, after a type of seashell, and became the flagship of Shell Transport and Trading, which Samuel formed in Royal Dutch Petroleum got its start in the Dutch East Indies in the late s, and by had integrated production, pipelining, and refining operations. Also in , the discovery of oil in Iran by a British former gold miner and a Middle Eastern shah led to the incorporation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The company became British Petroleum in and is now BP.

In the United States, the discovery of the Spindletop field in Texas eventually spawned companies such as Gulf Oil, Texaco, and others. The dominance of the United States during this era was illustrated by the fact that regardless of where oil was produced in the world, its price was fixed at that of the Gulf of Mexico. Beginning with World War I, oil became a strategic energy source and a tremendous geopolitical prize. The Prize: The definitive book on the modern history of oil:.

The Frackers: An informative and entertaining history of how fracking changed the oil and gas industry:. The governments of many oil-producing nations, particularly in the Middle East and South America, saw the Integrated Oil Companies IOCs operating there as instruments of their countries of origin usually the U. OPEC had little impact during its first decade of existence.