Downhole membrane system to control natural gas production

Abstract

A method for controlling production of natural gas includes a membrane module comprising a membrane that permeates NGL over methane, separating natural gas into an NGL rich permeate and a methane rich retentate, carrying the permeate from the membrane module to a gas plant, carrying the retentate from the membrane module for injection into a storage zone where the retentate is stored when demand is low; and recovered when demand is high. A system includes a membrane module for receiving a feed comprising natural gas, separating the natural gas into a permeate rich NGL and a retentate rich methane, a gas plant, a line for carrying the permeate from the membrane module to the gas plant, a storage zone; another line for carrying the retentate from the membrane module to the storage zone; and a production line for recovering methane rich gas from the storage zone to the gas plant.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.