Oil -v- Gas, Comparative costs

[AnOther]

I use oil for heating and with the price unlikely to come down much in the forseeable future I wonder what the relative running cost's are between that and gas and the likely cost of conversion ?

Might it be possible to convert my boiler. It's quite an old Ferroli but has an external burner unit which I imagine could be replaced by a gas one.

[Anton Redman]

Energy for energy heavy oil is cheaper than gas unless you are sitting right on top of the oil wells and they are burning gas off which does not happen these days.

 

[AnOther]

Anton, thanks for the reply however allow me to correct you on the point about flaring off.

Working in the North Sea in the oil and gas business I can tell you most assuredly that flaring of gas does still happen these days and is a common occurrence albeit tightly regulated by agreed DTI quotas.

In the case of an oil field gas is a natural by product and if suitable in terms of composition and quality is commonly used as fuel for autonomous power generation via gas turbines. Where possible excess gas is exported by pipeline but if not then it has to go somewhere and that somewhere is up the flare stack. If the flare quota is likely to be exceeded then a waiver must be obtained or production has to be reduced oreven stopped altogether and at $90/$100 a barrel that is clearly the option of last resort so a good deal of planning and management goes into ensuring that situation never occurs. 

For gas fields the situation is easier because the product is already pipelined so there is always somewhere for it to go hence little or no need to flare off although it still sometimes can happen.