Natural Gasoline (Pentanes Plus): The Heaviest NGL Component of Natural Gas Processing: Supply, Demand, Sources, and Uses.

   

      One of my favorite blogs from RBN Energy often goes into detail about hydrocarbon products. This month they did a two-part post about natural gasoline, which is my main source for this post, which is a review and summary of that blog with additional information. These blog posts were written by RBN’s Kristen Holmquist.

     According to Wikipedia:

“The chemical composition of natural gasoline is mostly five- and six-carbon alkanes (pentanes and hexanes) with smaller amounts of alkanes with longer chains. It contains significant amounts of isopentane (methyl butane) CH(CH3)2(C2H5), which is rare in the petroleum product. Its boiling point is within the standard range for gasoline, and its vapor pressure is intermediate between those of natural gas condensate (drip gas) and liquefied petroleum gas. Its typical gravity is around 80 API.”

     She first notes that natural gasoline is the most expensive NGL and that it accounts for more than 25% of the value of a weighted average barrel, but only 10%-12% of a barrel by volume. It is also the only NGL that does not require storage or transportation under pressure. Due to high levels in shale gas reservoirs, like other natural gas liquids, natural gasoline production in the U.S. from natural gas processing plants has risen steadily, tripling since around 2012, from about 300M barrels per day to about 900M barrels per day. Natural gasoline can also be refined from crude oil feedstocks. It is called gasoline because its composition is similar to very low-quality gasoline. Its API gravity is 80 degrees. It is the heaviest fraction derived from NGL fractionation plants, containing pentanes (C5), hexanes (C6), and heptane (C7) as well as some heavier hydrocarbons.

     She explains why natural gasoline production rises a little in summer (110%) and drops a little in winter (90%).

“It is at the separator and heater-treater where the seasonality becomes apparent. In the summer, when it’s hot, more of the natural gasoline evaporates in the separation equipment, ending up in the natural gas. But, in cool winter weather, some of the natural gasoline remains blended into the oil, or is more likely to be separated as a field condensate — a different product with a different price. That’s the chameleon-like trick. Sometimes the C5 molecules are marketed as natural gasoline, and at other times as pentanes plus or as condensate.”

     Shown below is pre-processing condensate from Ohio’s Utica and post-processing natural gasoline.

      Changes in temperature and processing conditions lead to different classifications and labels of condensate and natural gasoline which can make tracking production and demand more difficult. She notes that that difficulty led the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to “lose” 200M bpd in 2022 after reclassifying it. She notes that it has four primary uses:

1)        Gasoline blendstock – first it has to be desulfurized. It is cheaper than gasoline, so its addition brings down the cost of the final product.

2)        Diluent for Heavy Canadian Crude Oil- bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands cannot flow well due to its high density and viscosity. Adding natural gasoline helps it to flow through pipelines due to its availability, cost-effectiveness and relatively low molecular weight, and high API gravity. About one-third of the diluent used for Canadian crude comes from the U.S.

3)        Ethanol denaturant – “In the U.S., ethanol must be denatured (i.e., deliberately made unfit for human consumption, typically by adding 2%-5% hydrocarbons) before it can meet regulatory requirements and be used as a fuel.” Otherwise, ethanol could be subject to alcohol taxes. Natural gasoline is typically used as the main denaturant for ethanol.

4)        Petrochemical feedstock – she notes that before the Shale revolution: “light naphtha (which includes refinery light naphtha and natural gasoline) accounted for a large portion of U.S. ethylene feedstocks. In 2014, about 30%-35% of the feedstock was naphtha and natural gasoline.” Now natural gasoline is used in less than 1% of steam crackers as ethane, also from shale fields is used as the main feedstock for ethylene for plastics.

   She describes the EIA reclassification of some natural gasoline volumes as follows:

“The EIA assumed that about 200 Mb/d of natural gasoline (as of January 2022) was blended off in crude oil or otherwise counted as crude oil demand or crude oil exports. So the natural gasoline that was previously viewed as demand was eliminated from EIA statistics, replaced by the new category, Transfers to Crude. In other words, the EIA could not track natural gasoline demand in its stats so it assumed it got counted as crude oil, and made its balances reflect this change. That’s the way EIA made 200 Mb/d of natural gasoline disappear starting in January 2022. Since 2022, the volume being transferred to crude oil has gone up (blue line in Figure 2); last year (2024), it averaged nearly 450 Mb/d (red lines in Figure 2 are annual averages).”

     The components of natural gasoline such as pentanes, hexanes, and heptane, also have some different individual uses. One is as solvents. Pentanes are used in cleaning products. Heptane is used in paints and coatings. It is less toxic than pentanes and hexanes and is also used by stamp collectors for removing adhesives.

     Market analysis by Precedence Research explores the growing global market for pentanes with some highlights and graphs below. They also note that trends toward environmentally friendly cleaning products mean more pentane-based cleaning agents are being used. Cleansing in the electronics and automotive industries are using eco-friendly pentane more and more.

Pentane Market Key Takeaways

·      North America contributed more than 42% of revenue share in 2024.

·      Europe is estimated to expand the fastest CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

·      By type, the n-Pentane segment has held the largest market share of 43% in 2024.

·      By type, the neopentane segment is anticipated to grow at a remarkable CAGR of 5.4% between 2025 and 2034.

·      By application, the blowing agent segment generated over 32% of revenue share in 2024.

·      By application, the electric cleansing segment is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR over the projected period.

 

 

References:

 

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural (Gasoline) – Different Names, Uses Add to Mystery Around Natural Gasoline. Kristen Holmquist. RBN Energy. April 11, 2025. You Make Me Feel Like a Natural (Gasoline) - Different Names, Uses Add to Mystery Around Natural Gasoline | RBN Energy

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural (Gasoline), Part 2 – Exploring the Quirkiest NGL. Kristen Holmquist. RBN Energy. April 14, 2025. You Make Me Feel Like a Natural (Gasoline), Part 2 - Exploring the Quirkiest NGL | RBN Energy

Petroleum and other liquids. Energy Information Administration. U.S. Ending Stocks of Natural Gasoline (Thousand Barrels)

Natural gasoline. Wikipedia. Natural gasoline - Wikipedia

Pentane. Wikipedia. Pentane - Wikipedia

Hexane. Wikipedia. Hexane - Wikipedia

Heptane. Wikipedia. Heptane - Wikipedia

Pentane Market Trends in March 2025: A Closer Look at Supply, Demand, and Future Outlook. Junyuan Petroleum Group. March 1, 2025. Pentane Market Trends in March 2025: A Closer Look at Supply, Demand, and Future Outlook - Junyuan Petroleum Group

Pentane Market Size, Share, and Trends 2025 to 2034. Precedence Research. Pentane Market Size to Surpass USD 194.36 Billion by 2034