Oriji A.Boniface. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Application www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 8, ( Part -5) August 2016, pp.40-46 www.ijera.com 40|Page Natural Gas Conditioning and Processing From Marginal Fields Using Modular Technology in Nigeria *Oriji A.Boniface and Ekpeti Egoyibo Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Port Harcourt ABSTRACT Gas flaring in Nigeria is a major pollution concern for the environment and health of Nigerians. Burning of natural gas brings about emitting of carbon monoxide into the environment as well as warm up the environment, thereby contributing to the global warming scourge. The lack of processing this gas has also led to loss of revenue in a sector where there is a likelihood of otherwise generating more revenue in the country. Gas conditioning and processing in Nigeria has brought about certain level of solutions to the flaring of natural gas in the country. This paper discusses a modular technology associated with the conditioning and processing of natural gas that marginal fields can partake-in in Nigeria to monetize natural gas in the country using a typical Nigeria natural gas plant located in Delta State as a cased study. There have been lots of discouragement in the past about investing in associated gas produced during crude oil production, but the study on this particular gas plant in Nigeria shows solutions to most of this problems. The gas plant LPG facility is a modular assembly of process equipment linked with interconnecting pipework for scalability and ease of deployment. The design took into consideration the specific composition of the associated gas produced during production of crude oil. The traditional approach of piping gas from a remotely located oil field to a central processing facility can now be put aside paving the way for a less than orthodox technique of “bringing the plant to the gas” whereby the need for expensive pipeline will be eliminated by situating the facility adjacent to the oil flow station. The gas plant gives a full technology of utilizing natural gas resources to meet the socio-economic needs of mankind while preserving the environment not only for meeting present needs but for the needs of future generations. I. INTRODUCTION Natural gas is the cleanest of all fossil fuels and simply the best choice for the environment. Development of the natural gas industry has been very much influenced by the physical characteristics of natural gas. Although oil, being a liquid at ambient temperature, can be contained and transported relatively easily using simple and less-expensive technologies, natural gas is more complex and generally more expensive to process, store and transport because of its physical nature. As a result of this, natural gas is either burnt off, pumped back into the reservoir or wells are abandoned. It may seem expensive at the beginning to go into production of natural gas, but it becomes more lucrative and beneficial in the long run, as regards the present volume of natural gas, impact on the environment, infrastructures and source of energy it will produce. (www.wikipedia.com). Natural gas is the world’s third largest source of primary energy following coal and oil. Since the early 1970s, world reserves of natural gas have been increasing steadily, at the rate of 5% per annum. Similarly the number of countries with known reserves has also increased from around 40 in 1960 to about 102 today. In 2014, Nigeria was recorded to be the 9th country in the world with the largest proven gas reserves, and the largest in Africa. According to the World Fact book, Nigeria has natural gas reserve of about 5.1 trillion cubic meters (tcm). Nigeria as one of the largest gas- flaring country in the world, by not fully harnessing its gas resources, tends to loss an estimated 18.2 million U.S. dollars daily from gas flaring. The numerous challenges associated with the transportation of natural gas to processing plants has led to the high volume of gas still been flared in Nigeria today. The health and environmental challenges associated with gas flaring cannot be overemphasized. There is also a huge economic loss when natural gas is been flared. According to the World Bank report (2008), Nigeria loses up to 30.6 billion US Dollars annually due to gas flaring. Several technologies exist to harness the potential of stranded gas field thereby converting this waste gas to more productive use. Some of these solutions include using the gas to generate power, re-injecting gas to recover more oil, shipping it to markets via pipelines, building of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) plants, and converting these gases to more useful and cleaner energy source for automobiles, generators etc. This paper is on a practical case study in which a technological solution harnesses the economic potential of a wasting resource as well as mitigating its negative impact on the environment. By utilizing local human and natural resources to synthesize products of commercial value, this case study brings to fore RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS