The transportation of gas

Gas transport and supply

Overall, the problems of transport and of storage of gas are the same as for oil. Producer and consumer countries are far apart and gas has to be taken from one to the other. But in detail, things are quite different. Overland or underwater transport by gas pipeline is preferred.

Unlike oil, the gas is in a gaseous state at normal pressures and temperatures. This means that, for the same quantity of energy, it occupies a volume 600 times greater than that of oil. Therefore, there is no question of chartering vessels to transport gas in its gaseous state. That would cost … 600 times too much!

The most usual method of transportation is therefore by gas pipelines. There are underwater gas pipelines, such as those which link Norwegian gas fields to European terminals or those linking North Africa to Sicily. And of course, overland gas pipelines like those that bring Russian gas to the European Union. These gas pipelines are not visible: for reasons of safety and security they are buried underground. The compressed gas circulates at high speed in a gas pipeline, with the aid of compression plants positioned at regular intervals along the network.

But in certain cases the construction of gas pipelines is technically impossible or too expensive, for example to bring Nigerian gas to Europe, or to take gas from Qatar to Japan. To resolve this problem, a method of maritime transport based on the liquefaction of the gas (LNG, liquified natural gas) has been introduced.