Natural Gas Storage: what does it mean?

Natural gas, like many other commodities, can be

stored for an indefinite period of time in natural
gas storage facilities for later consumption.

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 Usage

Gas storage is principally used to meet load variations. Gas is injected into storage
during periods of low demand and withdrawn from storage during periods of peak
demand. It is also used for a variety of secondary purposes, including:
 Balancing the flow in pipeline systems. This is performed by mainline
transmission pipeline companies to maintain operational integrity of the
pipelines, by ensuring that the pipeline pressures are kept within design
parameters.
• Leveling production over periods of fluctuating demand. Producers use storage
to store any gas that is not immediately marketable, typically over the summer
when demand is low and deliver it in the winter months when the demand is
high.
 Usage

 Market speculation. Producers and marketers use gas storage as a

speculative tool, storing gas when they believe that prices will
increase in the future and then selling it when it does reach those
levels.
 Insuring against any unforeseen accidents. Gas storage can be used
as an insurance that may affect either production or delivery of
natural gas. These may include natural factors such as hurricanes,
or malfunction of production or distribution systems.
 Usage

 Reducing price volatility. Gas storage ensures commodity

liquidity at the market centers. This helps contain natural gas
price volatility and uncertainty.
 Offsetting changes in natural gas demands. Gas storage facilities
are gaining more importance due to changes in natural gas
demands. First, traditional supplies that once met the winter
peak demand are now unable to keep pace. Second, there is a
growing summer peak demand on natural gas, due to electric
generation via gas fired power plants.
 Measures and definitions

Characteristics of underground storage facilities need to be

defined and measured. A number of volumetric measures have
been put in place for that purpose:
 Total gas storage capacity: It is the maximum volume of natural
gas that can be stored at the storage facility. It is determined by
several physical factors such as the reservoir volume, and also
on the operating procedures and engineering methods used.
 Total gas in storage: It is the total volume of gas in storage at
the facility at a particular time.( verilen muddetde saxlanilan qazin miqdari)
 Measures and definitions

 Base gas (also referred to as cushion gas): It is the volume of gas that is
considered as permanent inventory in a storage reservoir to maintain
adequate pressure and deliverability rates throughout the withdrawal
season.
 Working gas capacity: It is the total gas storage capacity minus the base gas.
 Working gas: It is the total gas in storage minus the base gas. Working gas is
the volume of gas available to the market place at a particular time.
 Physically unrecoverable gas: The amount of gas that becomes permanently
embedded in the formation of the storage facility and that can never be
extracted.
 Measures and definitions
 Cycling rate: It is the average number of times a reservoir’s working gas volume
can be turned over during a specific period of time. Typically the period of time
used is one year.
 Deliverability: It is a measure of the amount of gas that can be delivered
(withdrawn) from a storage facility on a daily basis. It is also referred to as the
deliverability rate, withdrawal rate, or withdrawal capacity and is usually expressed
in terms of millions of cubic meters of gas per day (Mcm/day) that can be delivered.
 Injection capacity (or rate): It is the amount of gas that can be injected into a storage
facility on a daily basis. It can be thought of as the complement of the deliverability.
Injection rate is also typically measured in millions of cubic meters of gas that can
be delivered per day (Mcm/day).
 Storage technologies
• Storage types
porous rock storage: aquifer / depleted field
salt cavern storage
• Surface facilities
compressors
gas treatment

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 Porous rock storage : depleted field

• Created in a depleted oil or gas field.

• Gas is re-injected into a porous rock formation ->
like a sponge absorbing water.
• Gas is kept in place thanks to impermeable cap
rock.
• Geological properties determine the
characteristics of the reservoir:
Porosity - determines the capacity of the rock
to hold gas.
Permeability - determines the ability of the
rock to transmit gas.
1 Covering layer
2 Reservoir
3 Central station
4 Production well

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 Porous rock storage : depleted field
A number of factors determine whether or not a depleted gas field will make an
economically viable storage facility:
 The reservoir must be of sufficient quality in terms of porosity and permeability to
allow storage and production to meet demand as required;
 Natural gas must be contained by effective seals otherwise there will be lost
volumes that cannot be recovered;
 The depleted reservoir and field infrastructure must be close to gas markets;
 The existing infrastructure must be suitable for retrofitting the equipment to inject
and produce gas at the necessary pressures and rates;

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 Porous rock storage : aquifer
• Located in geological formations similar to those of
depleted fields (porosity, permeability).
• Unlike in depleted fields, pores are filled with water.
• In injection, water is pushed down the formation.
• In withdrawal, the reverse happens.
• Operation is more complex -> gas may migrate into
the water-bearing strata.
• Upon extraction, gas requires further
dehydratation.
1 Covering layer
2 Reservoir
3 Central station
4 Production well
5 Verification well
6 Verification well of the upper aquifer
7 Upper aquifer

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 Porous rock storage : aquifer

Aquifers are underground, porous and permeable rock formations

that act as natural water reservoirs. In some cases they can be used
for natural gas storage. Usually these facilities are operated on a
single annual cycle as with depleted reservoirs. The geological and
physical characteristics of aquifer formation are not known ahead
of time and a significant investment has to go into investigating
these and evaluating the aquifer’s suitability for natural gas
storage.
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 Porous rock storage : aquifer
If the aquifer is suitable, all of the associated infrastructure must be developed from
scratch, increasing the development costs compared to depleted reservoirs. This
includes installation of wells, extraction equipment, pipelines, dehydration facilities,
and possibly compression equipment. Since the aquifer initially contains water
there is little or no naturally occurring gas in the formation and of the gas
injected some will be physically unrecoverable. As a result, aquifer storage
typically requires significantly more cushion gas than depleted reservoirs; up to
80% of the total gas volume. A consequence of the above factors is that developing
an aquifer storage facility is usually time consuming and expensive. Aquifers are
generally the least desirable and most expensive type of natural gas storage facility.

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 Porous rock storage : aquifer

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 Salt cavity storage
• Formed out of salt deposits by dissolving and
extracting salt (leaching).
• Resilient and watertight -> reduced gas migration.
• Salt properties determine, inter alia:
cavern diameter and height
max and min operating pressure.

1 Central station
2 Production well
3 Salt caverns
4 Layers of rock salt

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 Salt cavity storage

Underground salt formations are well suited to natural gas storage. Salt caverns
allow very little of the injected natural gas to escape from storage unless
specifically extracted. The walls of a salt cavern are strong and impervious to
gas over the lifespan of the storage facility.
Salt caverns are usually much smaller than depleted gas reservoir and aquifer
storage facilities. A salt cavern facility may occupy only one one-hundredth of
the area taken up by a depleted gas reservoir facility. Consequently, salt caverns
cannot hold the large volumes of gas necessary to meet base load storage
requirements.

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 Gas Storage Facility Operations
Type Cushion Gas

Depleted Reservoir 50%

Aquifer Reservoir 50%-80%

Salt Formation 20%-30%

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 LNG Storage Tank
LNG Storage Tank is A liquefied natural gas storage
tank or LNG storage tank is a specialized type of storage
tank used for the storage of Liquefied Natural Gas. LNG
storage tanks can be found in ground, above ground or
in LNG carriers. The common characteristic of LNG
Storage tanks is the ability to store LNG at the very low
temperature of -162 °C (-260 °F). LNG storage tanks
have double containers, where the inner contains LNG
and the outer container contains insulation materials. The
most common tank type is the full containment tank.
Tanks vary greatly in size, depending on usage.
In LNG storage the pressure and temperature within the tank will
continue to rise. LNG is a cryogen, and is kept in its liquid state at
very low temperatures. The temperature within the tank will
remain constant if the pressure is kept constant by allowing the
boil off gas to escape from the tank. This is known as auto-
refrigeration.
The world's largest above-ground tank (Delivered in 2000) is the
180 million liters full containment type for Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.
The world's largest tank (Delivered in 2001) is the 200 million
liters for Toho Gas Co., Ltd
 Gasholders
Gas can be stored above ground in a gasholder (or gasometer), largely
for balancing, not long-term storage, and this has been done since
Victorian times. These store gas at district pressure, meaning that they
can provide extra gas very quickly at peak times. Gasholders are
perhaps most used in the United Kingdom and Germany.
A gas holder, or gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or
town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures.
The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with
pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap. Typical volumes
for large gas holders are about 50,000 cubic meters, with 60 meters
diameter structures.
Gas holders now tend to be used for balancing purposes, to ensure gas
pipes can be operated within a safe range of pressures, rather than for
actually storing gas for later use.