How it works: The natural gas that you use to cook, heat your home, and make hot water for bathing is made almost entirely of methane. Natural gas is concentrated in natural gas fields, and is tapped by drilling wells, essentially long narrow holes in the ground. Natural gas is gathered from wells and transported by pipes for processing.

The natural gas that comes from wells is often not pure enough, so that natural gas processing plants are used to first remove liquids, such as water and oil, and then unwanted gases, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide. These gases lower the heating value of natural gas, and can cause corrosion of pipes and equipment.

After processing, the natural gas is sent to a compressor station, which increases the pressure so that the natural gas can be efficiently piped from the compressor station to your home. Underground pipelines are used to move natural gas around.
Since natural gas is needed more in the winter than in the summer, it can be stored underground, either in old gas fields or underground salt mines, until it is needed. Natural gas can also be cooled until it becomes a liquid, and moved by ship around the world.

Fuel Facts:
Natural gas provides 22 percent of the energy used in the U.S. and 55 percent of homes in the U.S. are heated by natural gas. There are vehicles that run on natural gas, but natural gas provides a growing percent of U.S. transportation energy. Natural gas is the major source of hydrogen fuel. Natural gas is odorless. A chemical called mercaptan is added to make it smell so that leaks can be detected. Natural gas is used as a component to make fertilizer, paint, plastics, medicine, and many other products.

Natural gas:
Natural gas is a form of chemical energy. Natural gas is commonly used to heat our homes and to cook our meals. Natural gas is extracted from the earth using wells and processed to remove water, carbon dioxide, and other unwanted gases. It is then compressed to provide the energy to move the natural gas via underground pipelines to your home. Since the natural gas fields and processing/compression facilities are often located far from your home, and because it is transported by underground pipeline, most of this infrastructure is invisible to us.

Number of Homes heated by:
Natural Gas 55%
Electricity 39%
Heating Oil 7%
Propane 4%
(Source: DOE)

Natural Gas Uses
Natural gas is used extensively in residential, commercial and industrial applications. It is the dominant energy used for home heating with about 55 percent of American homes using gas. The use of natural gas is also rapidly increasing in electric power generation and cooling, and as a transportation fuel.

About 46 percent of natural gas delivered to U.S. consumers is used in the industrial sector, providing energy for everything from mining minerals to processing food. Generating electricity consumes about 15 percent. Another 15 percent is used in the commercial market — for heating and cooling office buildings, hospitals and schools, and for cooking in restaurants. Most of the remaining amount — about 22 percent — is used in the residential market, providing energy for home heating, hot water, cooking, clothes drying and air conditioning.

Natural gas is delivered to about 175 million American consumers through a 1.3 million-mile network of underground pipe. A total of 288,000 producing natural gas wells, 125 natural gas pipeline companies and more than 1,200 gas distribution companies provide gas service to all 50 states. The United States accounts for about 24 percent of the world’s natural gas production each year.
Natural gas has more uses than most people realize. It is used as a fuel for heating, as a fuel for electrical generation and occasionally as a fuel for vehicles. However, it also has a lot of uses in the chemicals, fertilizer and plastics industries – plus a very large number of other applications.

The Haynesville shale in the United States is the fourth largest natural gas field in the world. Clean, secure domestic natural gas will helps us make ourselves more at home with natural gas.