Natural Gas

natural gas, also called methane gas or natural methane gas, colourless highly flammable gaseous hydrocarbon consisting primarily of methane and ethane. It is a type of petroleum that commonly occurs in association with crude oil. A fossil fuel, natural gas is used for electricity generation, heating, and cooking and as a fuel for certain vehicles. It is important as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and is necessary for a wide array of other chemical products, including fertilizers and dyes.

Natural gas is often found dissolved in oil at the high pressures existing in a reservoir, and it can be present as a gas cap above the oil. In many instances it is the pressure of natural gas exerted upon the subterranean oil reservoir that provides the drive to force oil up to the surface. Such natural gas is known as associated gas; it is often considered to be the gaseous phase of the crude oil and usually contains some light liquids such as propane and butane. For this reason, associated gas is sometimes called “wet gas.” There are also reservoirs that contain gas and no oil. This gas is termed nonassociated gas. Nonassociated gas, coming from reservoirs that are not connected with any known source of liquid petroleum, is “dry gas.”