ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- The company has secured the necessary environmental and permit approvals and construction will start at the site shortly. The installation is expected to be onstream in summer 2013.
The new unit, next to the 'De Wijk' gas field in the Dutch province of Drenthe, will supply nitrogen for the extraction of natural gas from small gas fields.
The nitrogen, injected at high pressure, will make it easier and more efficient for NAM to extract the remaining 10% of gas from the depleted field.
“Natural gas is normally extracted by being forced up by the natural pressure in the gas field itself. The more gas that is extracted, the lower the pressure in the gas field becomes and the more difficult it is to extract the rest. In general, the last ten percent in a field cannot be extracted economically,” says Hans van Kempen, Head of NAM Onshore Projects.
“It can be done, however, using new techniques. Injecting nitrogen at high pressure into the sandstone strata containing the gas increases the pressure in the field, and additional natural gas can be extracted more easily.”
The 'De Wijk' gas field, for which the nitrogen is intended, has been in production since 1954 and has so far yielded some 14.5 billion cubic metres of gas. Thanks to the new technology, it will be possible to extract the last 2 billion cubic metres in the next 10 to 15 years.
BACKGROUND
The Netherlands and the Dutch part of the North Sea contain some 175 small oil and gas fields, some of which are almost depleted. In order to preserve the gas, the government has decided to prioritize the extraction of natural gas from small fields.
