Natural Gas on Property

[blufford]

Can people who have natural gas wells on their land use the gas for their own energy needs right straight from the pipe or does it have to be processed?

[simi-steading]

Yes. I get mine straight off the well head.. Just be sure you have rights to use the gas before you do..

It's best if you run it though a separator with anti-freeze in it. It will help remove some of the oily deposits, and it will remove water and keep your regulator from freezing up.

Here in this area of WV, many of us get free gas straight outta the ground as part of the easement agreement with the well owners. Others own the wells they get the gas from, just so they have gas.

OH.. you do have to be more careful though. The gas won't smell like you know. It may have a very faint oil smell, or it could be a strong oil smell.. but you'll have to learn to recognize when you got a gas leak since it's not what you are used to smelling.

This is the well on my property..

[Darren]

As Simi said it doesn't have a smell. It can freeze up in the winter at the wellhead before the separator. That means shutting the well and pouring methanol into the line coming off to remove the ice.

There's also two additional pressure regulators, high and medium, in addition to the low pressure regulator found on all NG service lines.

I have a gas well on my country property & yes I get free gas from it & use it straight from the well . Wish I had it here .
There is a separator at the well head that separates the gas & the fluids , oil , water , ect. & sends the fluids into a 100 barrel tank that's also at the well head & the gas goes out a pipeline . I'm tapped into that pipeline .
The gas out of the well definitely has an odor that you'll notice if it leaks , at least mine does .

[simi-steading]

Mine is set up like WV Hillbilly has too, only I've got two hundred barrel tanks, and I've got a separator at the house in addition to the one at the well head. Some around here don't have a pump. Just a gas head. Most of those don't have a separator at the head, so they put them by the house regulator.

[texican]

You have to have mineral rights, or, an 'old' lease that allows someone to have free gas rights. Then the tricky part happens.... getting any company to allow you to access the free gas. More than likely, you'd have to hire a lawyer and sue for access. Talked with an attorney, and he advised me, 25 years ago, to hook up without their consent, then 'they' would have to sue me to disconnect.

Rarely does anyone get free gas rights in a new lease...

[simi-steading]

I have the actual paper that gives me the rights to free gas.. but yep, almost never do you see it from a new well..

The guy that just recently bought my well is a good guy, and is making sure I'm staying in gas... He believes in taking care of people, because he knows since the well is on my land, that he may need something from me some day...

[Michael W. Smith]

I think the "boiler plate" lease the gas producer supplied us with would give us 200,000 cubic feet of free gas / year.

Wanting to make sure I had enough free gas and wouldn't have to pay, it was changed to 300,000 cubic feet of free gas / year . . . . . . PER well. They drilled 5 wells.

[simi-steading]

same here.. 300K.. That seems to be pretty standard in these parts...

The deal is, there is no meter on most wells, so no one would ever know how much gas someone really is using..

300K is more than most people would ever use.

[FarmboyBill]

Here, many have to use regulators to cut down the flow

[simi-steading]

Yes, you do have to have regulators on them... Depending on the well, it can be a couple hundred pounds of pressure at the well head.. or even more... the pressure entering the house has to be just under a half pound.. usually around .3-.4 PSI..

BTW, if you get free gas, you are responsible for everything from the well to the house.. You have to fix it, or find someone that is willing to look past the liability of repairing it for you... You should also keep a spare regulator on hand.. they run around $80 - $100 for one that will deal with up to something like 125psi... .... If you have to deal with several hundred pounds of pressure, then the prices start going up fast and can get really expensive..

[Darren]

As mentioned before, there are three pressure regulators (high, medium and low) on the line coming from the well. There's usually a large separator at the well to remove liquids (oil mostly but possibly salt water around here too) and shunt them to a storage tank. Then you'll have a much smaller one to remove water before the three regulators to the house line.

[simi-steading]

I've only got two on on my line from the well..

My gas goes from the well head into the large separator. Then the gas goes through a regulator that drops the pressure down to about 15 pounds. My well head gas pressure on a good day may be 50 pounds. Then into a gas line that runs to the back of the house. That goes into a small separator, then into an expansion tank, that kind of acts like a shock absorber.. then into a regulator, then into my house..

There are actually two more regulators, but those are strictly for the engine on the pump. One that takes gas directly from the head without going through the large separator, and feeds it to an electric regulator valve that is controlled by the pump-matic.. it shuts the gas off, or turns it on when it decides to start the engine and run the well.

Like I had said before.. In a way, it's almost like a perpetual energy machine.. Uses it's own fuel to pump more fuel... sort of..

I know you know most of this Darren, but not exactly how my well is set up.. but I was explaining more for the OP asking... If you look at the picture of my well, to the left of the head you can see a regulator with a blue hose on it.. .That's the one that feeds the engine...

If you look just between my shoulder, and the regulator I just pointed out, you can just make out the rusty large separator in all the Autumn Olives.. .All of that has been cut and cleared now though... I should get a picture for the OP..

[Michael W. Smith]

Originally Posted by simi-steading

The deal is, there is no meter on most wells, so no one would ever know how much gas someone really is using..

300K is more than most people would ever use.

We were told we had to have a meter right at the well - so the well tender - or somebody from the gas company I would assume checks it.

simi-steading is correct - YOU are responsible for everything from the well to your house. They supply where you hook up to the well - everything else is all yours to buy and install yourself.

But yeah, 300K is more than what most people use in a year.

[simi-steading]

If a gas company owns the well and is selling the gas, then yep, I can see having a meter on it..

My well, gas is a byproduct. They are after the oil on mine, and don' sell the gas.... However, my well recently sold, and the new owner was talking about running a line from my well over to another well he owns in the next holler they sell gas off of, or at least want to.. I'm not sure of the details...

I'm wondering though how they'd do that, because they are all such low pressure, yet most the pipe lines to the gas company around here are higher pressure. They'd have to have a compressor or something to get the pressure up high enough to inject into the transmission lines.. That sure seems to almost make it not worth the costs for a couple of old mostly used up wells.

The old owner was venting the gas off into the air... They have to get rid of it so the oil can come up... I'm actually doing them a favor the more I use, because legally, you can't vent to the atmosphere...

[texican]

No meter on mine.... can use as much as I want... I put a regulator on the well site 25 years ago, the companies actually change them out occasionally. They did put a pressure regulator, limiting my line to 10lbs pressure (after I used a huge quantity one weekend, after they messed up and sent drilling mud down my line.... opened the line, and let it 'blow' for half a day, till the gas came through 'clean' instead of muddy.

Is important for newbies to realize this system belongs to you.... you're not going to get the gas operator to take care of things... you get to fix all the problems. Over the years, got in good with the actual people working the well daily... got a system of valves I can move, so even when the well is shut in, the compressor is shut in, or the pipeline is shut in....I can still get gas.

[dlmcafee]

Would it be worth it to bail a fairly deep deep (5100') well that was supposedly plugged back in the late 60s. The owner regained rights when the drillers pulled out finding gas but not sufficient to continue with it. Plug data shows a depth of 0 PBT what ever that means but a weight on the end of a large spool of fishing line never bottomed out but did pass thru water. When opening one of the valves there is a slow rush of gas but does not last long. Just curious, The only thing standing is a tree with one top and to side valves.

[simi-steading]

If the well isn't plugged and all that needs to be done is swapping the well, then it could be worth the effort.. You'll have to find out what that would cost in your area... prices vary so much all over the country..

If the well continuously fills with water, or oil, you'd probably have to put a pump jack on it, and then things start getting real expensive real fast. BUT, if you can pull enough oil out, it may help offset the costs enough to make it worth the effort.

BUT, if the well was plugged, more than likely the plug is at the bottom of the well... Having that drilled out probably wouldn't make it worth the consideration...

But the BIG IF, is, I have no idea if you can legally re-open a plugged well... Also, if you own a well, you have to put up a bond and you are responsible for the liabilities.. .such as an oil spill, explosion, or a kid getting hurt if they are trespassing..

[Darren]

Originally Posted by dlmcafee

Would it be worth it to bail a fairly deep deep (5100') well that was supposedly plugged back in the late 60s. The owner regained rights when the drillers pulled out finding gas but not sufficient to continue with it. Plug data shows a depth of 0 PBT what ever that means but a weight on the end of a large spool of fishing line never bottomed out but did pass thru water. When opening one of the valves there is a slow rush of gas but does not last long. Just curious, The only thing standing is a tree with one top and to side valves.

If it was plugged that long ago, something may have developed that made the well uneconomical to produce. If wells aren't tended properly they can be ruined from the point of useful gas flow. The doesn't mean the well couldn't be fraced to increase flow. That would be big dollars. It might be useful to look the well up and possibly contact the former production company.

https://apps.dep.wv.gov/oog/wellsearch_new.cfm

Costs to plug a well once you own it, have increased a lot in recent years.

https://apps.dep.wv.gov/oog/wellsearch_new.cfm

[simi-steading]

The fact it has a christmas tree on it makes me think it's probably not plugged..