What is ngl

Figure 5. NGL Prices by Year. Historically, U. NGL prices have fluctuated between the U. Typically, however, natural gas has acted effectively as a price floor for ethane with the other NGL hydrocarbons stratified upward with the heavier hydrocarbons being more expensive to the price ceiling of crude oil. As the international competitiveness of U. NGLs has risen and as U. Over the years, demand for NGLs has remained mostly flat, even declining in some years.

See Figure 6. Between and , U. By contrast, propane comprises the largest share of imports by the other top five countries. In the same time frame— to —U. Figure 6. Exports and Imports by Hydrocarbon. Most NGLs are gases at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, and therefore air emissions from NGLs can escape from small leaks, faulty equipment, or even normally operating processes e.

These air emission sources can occur throughout production, fractionation, processing, and distribution. Emissions of NGLs may also be considered lost product. Studies have linked ozone to negative human health affects including respiratory ailments and premature mortality. Measurement studies in and around major U.

As stated, NGLs are primarily emitted to the atmosphere through unintended releases commonly referred to as fugitive emissions. By definition, fugitive releases are diffuse, transitory, and elusive. Thus, one of the greater difficulties in fully understanding the impacts of NGL emissions is the development of a comprehensive and consistent inventory of sources and emissions.

EPA's National Emissions Inventory NEI is a bottom-up accounting of emissions that uses commonly accepted emissions factors with best available activity data to calculate an inventory for each source category. Attributing these top-down estimates to specific source categories is a challenging and difficult task. Notwithstanding, a recent academic study found that after decreasing for almost 30 years, concentrations of individual NGLs in the Northern Hemisphere began to increase around , and the rate of increase has been growing.

EPA has also provided VOC reduction guidelines to state, local, and tribal air agencies for existing oil and gas sources in ozone nonattainment areas and states in the Ozone Transport Region. Nearly all of U. The rise in ethane production has put intense downward pressure on its price. The falling profitability of ethane recovery, due to the falling price, has introduced a surprising phenomenon in the production line, something known as ethane rejection.

If a plant determines that ethane recovery is not profitable at a particular time, usually by considering price spreads, they will operate in what is sometimes referred to as rejection mode. When they are in this operating mode, firms leave the ethane they receive from raw gas streams in the natural gas to be sold as natural gas natural gas is sold on a per-BTU basis and not by volume.

Pipes are typically specified for a specific range of Btu values. If too much ethane is rejected, thus raising the Btu value, the gas stream may exceed this design limitation and damage the pipelines. As a result, propane consumption tends to increase in the winter, when home and building heating needs are highest, and nearly disappears in the summer. The rest is used in crop-drying and other niche tasks. The resultant surge in demand led to a spike in propane prices for the year.

Since then both the demand and price have stabilized. The emerging trend, however, since , is decreasing demand for propane. Residential and commercial markets are decreasing their consumption of propane due in large part to implementation of more energy-efficient appliances and a shift toward natural gas for heating.

Infrastructure, production, safety, the environment, and economics are all critical to the NGL market and are of interest to Congress. About 30 NGL-related bills have been introduced in the th Congress. For example, H. Some stakeholders argue that this contributes to a lack of transparency in the market and hinders analysis, which may affect policymaking related to NGLs. As NGLs play a bigger role in the U.

Other bills that have been introduced in the th Congress address infrastructure, taxes, safety, and other energy topics, and are not specifically targeting NGLs. The rise in production of each NGL—ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and pentanes—since has been large. Whether the increase is consumed in the United States or exported will depend on market conditions, especially prices.

Nevertheless, the production and consumption of more NGLs requires a better understanding of the differences and specificity of each hydrocarbon. Improved data collection and market understanding will help policymakers understand the ramifications of this growing fuel source. Figure A Flow Chart of Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids. Parker Bolstad, a summer research assistant, was instrumental in the research and drafting of this report. For simplicity, these molecules are occasionally referred to by the number of carbon atoms in their molecular chain: e.

In the case of butane and isobutane, both are C4 molecules with different arrangements of their carbon atoms. Charles K. Fractional distillation is a process that separates liquid mixtures into separate components based on their differing boiling points.

This is a paid service that CRS subscribes to. EPA evaluated the extensive body of published literature and published its findings in the Integrated Science Assessment. EPA's ISA concluded that "The current body of evidence indicates that there is likely to be a causal relationship between short-term exposure to O 3 and total mortality. Reilly, J. Schnell, Russell C. Koss, A. Gilman, Jessica B. Helmig, Detlev, et al. Part 60, Subpart KKK. Topic Areas About Donate. Download PDF. Download EPUB.

NGL Production Figure 3. Diagram of Processing and Fractionation Processes Figure 4. Exports and Imports by Hydrocarbon Figure A Appendixes Appendix.

Flow Chart. Summary The U. Demystifying the Acronyms It is essential to differentiate NGLs, the focus of this report, from similar categories and acronyms to avoid any potential confusion. Wet vs. Dry Gas The terms wet and dry gas are used to describe the concentration of NGLs in a natural gas stream. Types of Natural Gas Processing There are three primary methods to cool off an inlet gas stream during natural gas processing: absorption, refrigeration, and cryogenic turbo-expansion.

Footnotes 1. NGL Production Production and Consumption of NGLs Source: Bloomberg. Exports and Imports by Hydrocarbon It is used almost exclusively to produce ethylene, which is then turned into plastics. Much of the propane, by contrast, is burned for heating, although a substantial amount is used as petrochemical feedstock.

A blend of propane and butane, sometimes referred to as "autogas," is a popular fuel in some parts of Europe, Turkey, and Australia. Natural gasoline pentanes plus can be blended into various kinds of fuel for combustion engines, and is useful in energy recovery from wells and oil sands.

Oil and natural gas producers are increasingly targeting liquids-rich parts of supply basins due to higher crude oil prices , which influence the value of NGLs.

NGL field production is growing in the United States, representing an important part of the supply picture. NGLs are extracted from the natural gas production stream in natural gas processing plants.

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