Regulatory, technical pressures prompt more U. S. salt-cavern gas storage

Natural-gas storage in US salt caverns is meeting the need for flexible, high delivery and injection storage following implementation Nov. 1, 1993, of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 636. This ruling has opened the US underground natural-gas storage market to more participants and created a demand for a variety of storage previously provided by pipelines as part of their bundled sales services. Many of these new services such as no-notice and supply balancing center on use of high-delivery natural gas storage from salt caverns. Unlike reservoir storage, nothing restricts flow in a cavern. The paper discusses the unique properties of salt that make it ideal for gas storage, choosing a location for the storage facility, cavern depth and shape, cavern size, spacing, pressures, construction, conversion or brine or LPG storage caverns to natural gas, and operation.