Natural Gas Production

Most natural gas consumed in the United States is domestically produced, with significant importation from Canada and a small but rapidly growing contribution from overseas imports in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The vast majority of natural gas is a fossil fuel, formed over millions of years by the action of heat and pressure on organic material (ancient plants and animals). It is derived in much smaller amounts from renewable sources such as landfill gas and water/sewage treatment; for an example of this, see the report Franklin County Sanitary Landfill - Landfill Gas (LFG) to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project (PDF 6.7 MB). Download Adobe Reader. Other supplemental sources include synthetic gas and coal-derived gas. See the Energy Information Administration natural gas production page for more information.

Gas trapped in sub-surface porous rock reservoirs is extracted via drilling. Gas streams produced from oil and gas reservoirs contain natural gas, liquids, and other materials. Processing is required to separate the gas from petroleum liquids and to remove contaminants.

First, the gas is separated from free liquids such as crude oil, hydrocarbon condensate, water, and entrained solids. The separated gas is further processed to meet specified requirements. For example, natural gas for transmission companies must generally meet certain pipeline quality specifications with respect to water content, hydrocarbon dewpoint, heating value, and hydrogen-sulfide content.

A dehydration plant controls water content, a gas processing plant removes certain hydrocarbon components to hydrocarbon dewpoint specifications, and a gas sweetening plant removes hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur compounds (when present).

To learn how natural gas is distributed from production facilities to station locations, see the Natural Gas Distribution section.