Over the past few decades, the growth in the use of natural gas has been astonishing. It is now an integral part of the lifestyles of hundreds of millions of people. Yet the main constituent of natural gas is methane, an extremely flammable chemical and one that can also cause death by suffocation. This means that there is an ever-present danger of horrific accidents as natural gas is pumped from fields around the world and transported through millions of miles of pipelines so that we can heat our homes, cook our meals and ensure we have hot water on tap.

The applications of natural gas are clearly wide-ranging but just 15 countries produce 84% of the world’s supply so the availability is restricted. This means that the gas has to be transported over significant distances before it reaches the consumer.

The restrictions and transportation difficulties also encourage the search for gas in areas other than gas fields. As a result, it is now successfully taken from other sources such as oil fields, methane captured from landfills, methane released from coal beds and shale.

Pipeline Safety
All of these issues have led to serious concerns about safety. How do you ensure that the measures are in place to protect the supply chain from the moment the gas is discovered, during the long-distance transportation through pipelines above and below ground, and finally at the point of delivery and use?

New laser based methane gas detectors that improve safety have recently been made available, though many pipeline companies are not yet aware of their existence.

With the huge volume of highly flammable and potentially explosive natural gas that is moved around the world, and with the vast number of individual customers, it is not surprising that accidents occur. Recent examples of accidents that have happened during the distribution of natural gas are far more common than we would wish.

Recent Natural Gas Accident in China
These are just local examples from the United States; sadly, incidents of this nature happen around the globe. Perhaps the worst of these in recent memory is the December 2003 catastrophe in south-west China. Here, workers were searching for gas near the city of Chongquing. Suddenly, without warning, the gas field into which the workers were drilling exploded and discharged a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen sulphide over the surrounding area. The gas and the chemical combined to form a thick, choking fog that stayed low on the ground and swept across thousands of homes.

233 people, mainly children and the elderly, died from gas inhalation. 9,000 people were treated for gas poisoning and skin burns. More than 60,000 local residents were displaced from their homes to escape the dangerous fumes that polluted the air and water.

Aftermath of Natural Gas Poisoning
Over the succeeding weeks, some farmers were able to go home only to find 4,000 animal carcasses spread across their land. Thousands of other people were stopped from returning by the high concentrations of gas that still lingered around the areas where they lived and worked. Meanwhile, engineers burned off as much of the escaping gas as they could and then capped the gas well with tons of concrete. Elsewhere, medical workers were kept busy disinfecting the villages around the site of the disaster.

When faced with the human consequences of such tragedies, the media rightly draws attention to the apparent lack of safety precautions. They also point out that with the methane gas detection technology we have available, the tragedies are preventable. We certainly do not want to witness anything like the accident in China again – or indeed any of the many smaller-scale but often fatal natural gas incidents that occur in every country where we rely on natural gas.