(eBook version)Need: The first recorded successful underground natural gas storage experiment was carried out in Welland County, Ontario, Canada, in 1915. Gas was first stored in the United States in the Zoar Field in Western New York in 1916, and this field is still in operation by the National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation. In 1980, over 300 underground gas storage facilities were in operation in North America, and these include former gas and oil reservoirs, aquifers, and man-made cavities. As the available gas is converted to the higher end-uses and the necessity for increasing the volume of stored gas continues, only two alternatives are available: development of additional storage capacity, or more efficient utilization of existing storage reservoirs.
Result: The main objectives of the overall program have been the development of techniques for evaluating optimum pressures for underground storage reservoirs and for evaluating their mechanical stability under such operating conditions. Based on the encouraging results of the preliminary micro seismic studies, it was decided to undertake a detailed state-of-the-art evaluation of a selected gas storage reservoir in order to further perfect experimental procedures and to develop additional documentation.
Benefit: In general it is felt that the detailed micro seismic studies undertaken at the New Haven gas storage reservoir site have been highly successful. One of the most significant results of these studies is the fact that over the reservoir pressure range studied, approximately 220-623 psi, the micro seismic event rate was found to decrease with increasing pressure. From a micro seismic point-of-view this result indicates that the structural stability of the New Haven reservoir increases with storage pressure.
