British and US oil companies set up the world's largest oil refinery transhipment complex in the Caribbean after the Suez Crisis and a technological revolution in oil tanker design in 1956. Trinidad and Tobago became one of the world's largest oil refinery and transhipment centres. In 1969 the British oil companies began to withdraw their investments and requested the nationalisation of their assets. In 1985 the US companies withdrew their investments in response to the US government's deregulation of the domestic oil industry and financial incentives to bring their investments back home. Requested nationalisation led to the state-ownership of the oil sector. The government of Trinidad set up state-owned petrochemical and iron and steel industries, with some of the world's most sophisticated technology, to utilise the country's large natural gas reserves. But by 1988 state capitalism had failed to provide the expected economic and social benefits, despite the drain on limited financial reserves and massive foreign loans. The government's reliance on the oil sector as the `prime mover' of the economy had caused sectoral and trade imbalance, high inflation, increased unemployment, currency instability, debt crisis and political instability which culminated in an attempted coup in July 1990. The root cause of the failure of state capitalism was the governments' rush to industrialise and the structure of the state petroleum enterprises. The lack of accountability and responsibility of top management and government interference led to poorly run, unprofitable industries in which government waste and corruption were common.

High-accuracy density measurement data are required to validate equations of state (EOS) for use in custody transfer of natural gas through pipelines. The AGA8-DC92 EOS, which is the current industry standard has already been validated against a databank of natural gas mixtures with compositions containing up to 0.2 mole percent of the heavier C6+ fraction and is expected to predict densities of natural gas mixtures containing higher mole percentages of the C6+ fraction with the same accuracy. With the advances in exploration, drilling and production, natural gas streams containing higher percentages of the C6+ fraction have become available from the deepwater and ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico in recent years. High-accuracy, density data for such natural gas mixtures are required to check if the AGA8-DC92 EOS covers the entire range of pressure, temperature and compositions encountered in custody transfer. A state-of-the-art, high pressure, high temperature, compact single-sinker magnetic suspension densitometer has been used to measure densities of two simulated natural gas mixtures named M91C1 and M94C1 after validating its operation by measuring densities of pure argon, nitrogen and methane in the range (270 to 340) K [(26.33 to152.33) oF, (-3.15 to 66.85) oC] and (3.447 to 34.474) MPa [(500 to 5,000) psia]. Measured densities of M91C1, not containing the C6+ fraction show larger than expected relative deviations from the AGA8-DC92 EOS predictions in regions 1 and 2 but agree well with predictions from the recently developed REFPROP EOS, implyingthat the AGA8-DC92 EOS may be unreliable in its present state even for natural gas mixtures not containing the C6+ fraction. Measured densities of M94C1 containing more than 0.2 mole percent of the C6+ fraction deviate from the AGA8-DC92 EOS predictions by more than the expected values in region 1 which is not surprising but the agreement with AGA8-DC92 EOS predictions in region 2 is misleading which becomes evident when the measured densities are compared to the REFPROP EOS predictions. The measured data can be used to recalibrate the parameters of the AGA8-DC92 EOS or to validate an entirely new EOS.

The ability of the state versus societal groups to influence the formulation of policies has long been debated in political sociology. I suggest that historical contingency theory provides insight to resolve this debate. I evaluate the explanatory power of societycentered, state-centered and historically contingent theories of policy formation using the case of deregulation of the natural gas industry. I find that capitalists in the natural gas industry unified in response to capital accumulation crises and mobilized politically to change their institutional arrangements to restore and expand profitability. These changes, in turn, expanded state structures, creating powerful mechanisms for groups in society to leverage the state to obtain favorable policy outcomes. In the natural gas industry, the key state structure was the industry’s regulatory body. Once this structure was created, the natural gas industry used it to leverage the state to incorporate deregulation into its national agenda. Thus, instead of increasing state autonomy, the creation and expansion of state structures undermines state autonomy and provides powerful groups in society with the means to control the policy formation process.

Highly accurate density data is required for engineering calculations to make property estimations in natural gas custody transfer through pipelines. It is also essential to have accurate pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) data for developing equations of state (EOS). A highly accurate, high pressure and temperature, compact single sinker magnetic suspension densimeter has been used for density measurements. First, the densimeter is calibrated against pure component densities for which very reliable data are available. After validating its performance, the densities of four light natural gas mixtures that do not contain components heavier than hexane and two heavy gas mixtures containing hexane and heavier components having fractions more than 0.2 mole percent were measured. The light mixtures were measured in the temperature range of 250 to 450 K and in the pressure range of 10 to 150 MPa (1450 to 21,750 psi); the heavy mixtures were measured in the range of 270 to 340 K and in the pressure range of 3 to 35 MPa (500 to 5,000 psi). Out of those, the data for only four light natural gas mixtures have been presented in the dissertation due to confidentiality agreements that are still in force. A force transmission error and uncertainty analysis was carried out. The total uncertainty was calculated to be 0.11%. Data calculated in this work is compared with the current industry standard EOS for natural gas systems (AGA8-DC92 EOS) and GERG EOS, which is the most recently developed EOS for natural gas systems. The data measured as a part of this research should be used as reference quality data, either to modify the parameters of AGA8-DC92 EOS and GERG EOS or to develop a more reliable equation of state with wider ranges of pressure and temperature.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 79 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-79).

Over the past decade, public concerns have grown over America's energy use and production. Pushes towards more environmentally friendly and sustainable sources of energy have moved out of fringe politics and into mainstream political discourse. Advances in drilling technology and increased exploration of shale gas plays have made natural gas more available and accessible. The abundance of natural gas has led to its growing role in the U.S. electric production and has provided the United States with an opportunity to become a net exporter of energy in the near future. The availability of natural gas, coupled with uncertainty in the liquid petroleum market, has prompted stakeholders to search out additional uses for this low-cost energy source. The result has been a large-scale effort to encourage the use of natural gas-based fuel within the trucking industry. Commercial long-haul trucks and truck fleets are a v prime target of these efforts. The number of natural gas fueling stations around the country is increasing, and there are growing investments in new technologies and government incentives to retrofit and upgrade the nation's trucking fleet, making the logistics of a large-scale switch from a liquid petroleum-based fuel to natural gas much less complicated. Through a detailed analysis of natural gas trucks, fueling infrastructure, and case studies this report seeks to reach conclusions over the role natural gas vehicles (NGVs) should play in the future U.S. transportation system. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to natural gas. Chapter 2 discusses the current state of natural gas in the United States. Chapter 3 provides an overview of natural gas vehicle and infrastructure technology. Chapter 4 discusses marketplace NGV adoption factors. Chapter 5 deals with benefits of adoption and policy options for expansion of NGVs. Chapter 6 provides an overview of current federal, state and local policies and incentives. Chapter 7 discusses barriers and opportunities for NGV adoption. The report synthesizes and concludes that natural gas trucking offers the U.S. a cheaper alternative to liquid petroleum while promoting environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. / text

The presence of Hg in natural gas and gas condensate is termed as a “critical severity risk”, according to health and safety regulation of the petroleum industry. Mercury affects the gas processing plants as well as refinery industries; damaging heat exchanger, poisoning the catalysts and increases the exposure risk to the field workers. Consequently, in order to establish a data base project to assess both the total mercury content and/or the dominants species for certain production field, alongside with mercury distribution within a natural gas processing plant or petrochemical industries, it is vital to develop and establish a reliable, low cost, time saving and applicable method(s) to be used in oil and gas industry as a routine method, if possible. Hence, the current study primarily aimed to follow the distribution of mercury, as a total and species, within Obaiyed plant (Egypt) as a model of natural gas processing factory. Then the second phase of this work has been devoted to conduct an environmental visibility study to develop reliable and convenient methods to measure and speciate mercury on polluted crops due to industrial waste. This part of study was followed by a screening analysis for commercial rice samples represent the product of different world regions including Egypt.

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A review of all available published data and reports on oil and natural gas in Malaysia was carried out in this study. The acquired data and information were analyzed with established concepts organized and edited to meet the study objectives. The study showed that oil and natural gas are the most important primary energy resources and will continue to be the major energy source for the nation. To win optimum returns from oil and gas production, the following courses of action inter alia are recommended: 1. With Malaysia's energy surpluses and its trade location advantages on the Pacific rim surrounding the large markets in Asia, the following developments are suggested. -That Peninsular Malaysia because of its large population be developed into a hydrocarbon-related manufacturing centre employing intensive labour. An example would be the use of olefin, an oil derivative, in manufacturing polyester clothing. This industry would be competitive with other markets in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. -That Eastern Malaysia because of its energy rich resources and sparsely inhabited area be developed into a heavy industrial stat making use of high energy feed-stocks, for example, steel and aluminum smelting. 2. That offshore boundary disputes with other countries be resolved. 3. That PETRONAS continue to develop into a modern company able to share on an equal basis knowledge and joint venture projects with oil companies.