West Virginia gas production - shipped by rail?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I have been a reading a lot about expanded natural gas production in West Virginia - specifically methane gas produced from coal seams.

I was wondering - does this gas ship by rail? Can this be a good excuse to add another industry and those large gas tank cars to my Allegheny layout?

Thanks for any input from you Appalachians in the know!

2

Natural gas is almost exclusively shipped overland by pipeline. Natural gas can also be liquified and shipped by tankcar (or ocean tanker, or barge) but little LNG is moved by tank car as the gas is not of sufficient value to pay for the liquifaction and rail transportation.

However, usually natural gas comes out of the ground with other components and compounds that are usually removed from the gas near to the gas field or prior to distribution to consumers, depending on what they are. Sulfur, in the form of hydrogen sulfide (“sour gas”) has to be removed very near to the wellhead because it is extremely corrosive to ordinary steel and also one of the most deadly poisons there is. The desulfurization process creates byproduct sulfur which is usually transported somewhere else, usually by rail. If the sulfur is to be used domestically it usually moves molten in tankcars; if it is to be exported or moved in coastwise shipping it is usually allowed to cool and solidfy, and loaded into steel open-top high-side gons identical to coal gons. It is sometimes processed into sulfuric acid at the sour gas plant and shipped in that form by tankcar.

Natural gas liquids are very valuable and are removed from the natural gas before it goes to the consumer. Sometimes the liquids plant is near to the gas field and sometimes it is midstream in the process; for example, gas exported from the Middle East is liquified before the liquids are removed, and when the LNG ship reaches the destination terminal the liquids are removed along with allowing the LNG to return to the gaseous state prior to pipelining.

I don’t think West Virginia produces very much sour gas but it would produce some natural gas liquids, so it would be reasonable to model a liquids plant and ship from it cars of butane, propane, ethane, and “natural gasoline” which are the C5-plus molecules that are liquid at ordinary temperatures. These sorts of plants are scatte

3

Shawnee,

I just got back from West Virginia, and Natural Gas is piped from the wells. But there is also crude oil in WV. It is picked up from the wells by truck. I don’t know how it is send to the refineries from the trucks.

Gary

4

Thanks guys - Railway, great info answered the question quite precisely.

Best, Shawnee

5

I can’t add much, but I was motivated to post because my first job out of college back in 1968 was on the construction of a light hydrocarbon extraction plant for Consolidated Natural Gas in Hastings, West Virginia. The gas came in by pipeline, and we chilled it down and extracted propane, butane, and either pentane or ethane. The majority of the gas stream, methane, got put back in the pipeline. I don’t remember how the liquids left the plant, but there was no provision for rail loading, even though the C&O (I think) ran right by the plant. There was a small existing plant beside ours, and it’s possible that they had rail loading, but if they did I sure don’t remember it. But it wouldn’t be beyond the limits of modeling license to assume that your unit does ship out the liquids by rail tank car.

In any case, thanks for reminding me of the time I spent back up there.

Regards

Ed

6

The Inergy [sic] and Lone Star NGL plants in the Bakersfield area ship NGLs by rail. The most common is LPG. Cars placardard 3295 (liquid hydrocarbon, not otherwise specified) are also common. I also once saw cars placarded for pentane at one plant. A few years ago, I saw cars placarded for natural gasoline (1257).