NATURAL GAS
Of all the fuels, natural gas may be said to be the ideal one. Coming from the ground, it is piped a greater or less distance and distributed to the home or factory for light, heat, or power; for all of which it is equally desirable. It is ready for our use at the turn of a key, is absolutely clean, having neither dust, ash, nor unconsumed portions. It requires no kindling other than a lighted match.
Natural gas is found over an area which, if combined, would cover almost 10,000 square miles. It exists in twenty-two states—Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New York, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. In some of them the area has been large and the production very heavy, in others the field is small and unproductive. Until the last two or three years there have been no statistics as to the quantity of gas piped, but an account of its value has been kept for many years. For the twenty years beginning with 1888 the value is given at nearly $500,000,000.
It must be remembered that much of this represents extremely low prices, only the amount actually paid for its use. When gas is newly discovered in a region it is not considered an opportunity for the residents of the community to have cheap light, power and fuel for themselves, but instead as an opportunity to develop the country, to increase the population and attract new factories. In order to advertise and boom their communities free gas is usually offered to factories. So in dozens of instances large factories have been operated for years without a cent having been paid for fuel. For this reason no proper estimate can be made of the quantity of gas consumed, nor of its value even at a nominal price. In 1907, (the last year for which complete returns have been published in government reports) the amount of gas consumed was given at 404,000,000 cubic feet, which at present prices is valued at $63,000,000.
It is impossible to determine in any way the future production of natural gas, or to guess at the quantity remaining in the earth. It may be much less or much more than present conditions would indicate; but the present known fields are limited, and the pressure is growing steadily less in all of them.
The Conservation Commission reports, "It is safe to predict that the known fields will be exhausted in twenty-five years." The decrease of natural gas is strikingly illustrated in Indiana. This state, perhaps more than any other, profited directly by the discovery of its natural gas about twenty years ago. Here, the mineral maps show, is by far the greatest natural gas region in the United States. With the discovery of natural gas, established towns grew to ten times their former size and new ones sprang up everywhere. Indiana, which had been chiefly an agricultural state, bade fair to become one of the foremost manufacturing states on account of its cheap and abundant fuel. In 1902 Indiana produced nearly $8,000,000 worth of natural gas, but for 1908 the State Geologist's report contained no figures for this product. It had ceased to be a prominent factor in the wealth of the state! There is no resource that has been so shamefully, so hopelessly wasted as our natural gas.
With even more recklessness than characterizes the waste of our forests and our coal, we have allowed this perfect fuel to escape. To the dwellers in each region where natural gas is found, it seems that the supply is inexhaustible. The roar of the wells, which makes the very earth tremble; the flames springing high into the air; the undiminished pressure after months of use, appearing to indicate a boundless reservoir below; the opportunity for whole communities to grow rich by its use; all these things tend to promote recklessness on the part of all who handle it. In the beginning the wells are usually not tightly cased, and there is a considerable quantity of gas escaping about every well. New wells are frequently lighted to show the volume of gas. In some cases the well has become uncapped on account of heavy pressure and to prevent the escape of unconsumed gas into the air it is kept burning night and day. The strongest wells are often kept burning for months in order to advertise a new gas field. In this way immense quantities of the most perfect fuel in the world have been wantonly wasted. From a single well in eastern Kentucky there flowed a steady stream of gas for twenty years which at present prices would be worth $3,000,000, and the same story of waste from burning wells comes from every natural gas field.
In a new region where gas is abundant there is also a great waste from leaking pipe lines laid on the surface of the ground, from open flambeaux, and from careless home and factory consumption. In many communities the open flambeaux have been employed to light the streets, and allowed to burn day and night to avoid the expense of a man to care for them. Where natural gas is abundant, meters are not usually installed; instead, gas is sold by the month. The consumer is under no obligation to save the gas, in fact, he usually acts on the common American principle of wanting to get all he can for the money and so burns his open tip lights, and open burner stoves day and night. The factories waste in the same way, using open furnaces which are never banked during the season because it is easier and costs no more.
This, it seems, should be the whole history of natural gas waste, but the greatest source of loss still remains to be spoken of. In every gas region of any importance oil is found sooner or later, usually after the heaviest gas pressure has been exhausted; and the oil driller is the greatest of all foes to the life of a natural gas region. He finds that the gas interferes with the flow of oil, spraying it into the air and causing loss, and that the danger of fire is much increased by its presence. This frequently causes explosions, tearing out the side of the well or blowing out the casing, and making the oil-well useless. The surplus gas is usually piped to one side out of the reach of danger, and then burned to get rid of it. Drillers often try to force the gas out in the hope that it will be followed by a rush of oil.
This is the heaviest drain on the gas. In the Caddo field in Louisiana alone the loss is seventy million cubic feet per day, enough to light ten cities the size of Washington, D. C., and equal to ten thousand barrels of petroleum per day. In Indiana a few years ago fourteen wells, all within a space of a few acres in extent, were burned by oil drillers continuously for six months, the light being visible twenty miles away.
Greater care in the management of the wells and slight additional expense for casing are all that is required to stop the waste of gas from oil wells and heavy pressure gas wells.
All of these wastes taken together constitute a fearful loss. In 1907, more than 400,000,000 cubic feet were used and an almost equal number wasted. In other words, the daily waste is over a billion cubic feet, or enough to supply every city in the United States of over one hundred thousand population.
The heating value of a billion feet of gas is equal to a million bushels of coal. If some great conflagration were sweeping away our coal fields steadily every day in the year, and destroying our best coal at the rate of a million bushels per day, how quickly we should all arise to aid in checking it! And yet this imaginary case is actually true in regard to the best fuel in this country, which is burning uselessly an equal value in coal, and our coal must some day be used to supply the loss.
We are apt to ignore the greatness of this loss because the gas escapes into the air and we can not see it, or it burns and we see only its effect, not the loss of fuel, but if we could see it in the form of oil we should find that a billion feet of gas is equal to more than a hundred and sixty thousand barrels of petroleum. Think of it, the equivalent of one hundred and sixty thousand barrels of oil, for which no price is paid and of which no use is made, for ever destroyed every day in every year! Would the oil companies permit it? Would we not all assist them in saving their property from destruction, and shall we not ask of them equal help in saving the fuel that in turn conserves our coal supply? Little objection can be made to the present method of using gas in the older regions. The waste in domestic use is comparatively small. Much is used for lighting with incandescent burners, and asbestos grates and gas ranges have replaced the open-burner stoves and grates. These are all efficient methods of use, and but little could be done in the way of further conservation. In factories the gas-engine is in many instances replacing the open furnace, which requires many times as much gas to produce an equal amount of power. They should be used in every factory, and gas companies should also require the use of the best devices for saving gas in places where meters are not used.
Until last year but one state—Indiana—had an effective law preventing the waste of natural gas by oil companies. This law says in substance that a man can not take the oil from the ground where nature has safely stored it, unless he also provide a market for the gas which accompanies it. It also says that neither the producer nor the consumer shall be allowed to waste this valuable fuel, as such waste is against public policy.
Mr. I. C. White, of West Virginia, in discussing this question at the Conservation Congress said, "This Indiana statute should be enacted into law in every state where these fuels exist." Since that time Pennsylvania and Ohio have passed laws, which are said to be effective, for the conservation of natural gas.
Much has been accomplished by gas companies, who, since they became alive to the danger of loss of their investment, have been extremely watchful of their property. In West Virginia the gas companies buy the gas which has been obtained in the drilling of oil wells, thus providing a market for the waste gas and making it possible to continue the oil business and at the same time to furnish cheap gas.
Another hopeful sign is the pumping of all of the product of a well. Formerly as soon as a well dropped greatly in production it was abandoned, but now it is pumped until dry.
One method by which the gas from oil wells may be utilized consists in compressing it in steel cylinders for shipping. This in a small way has been found to be successful.
Experiments are being tried on a large scale in Ohio to prove that gas may be returned to reservoirs within the earth which are tight enough to hold it under heavy pressure.
Fuel gas made from low-grade coal is a satisfactory substitute for natural gas. Like the natural product it may be piped for long distances. Some natural gas companies have bought up the culm banks and heaps of refuse coal, so that if the natural gas becomes exhausted they can manufacture cheap gas at the mines and pipe it to the cities they now serve.