Gas marketing entities range from major corporations that take title to the gas to individual brokers living off buying and selling relationships. The larger supplier and aggregators offer extremely competitive swing gas sup­plies to LDCs, electric generators, and industries, often simply by manipulat­ing daily gas flows and attempting to operate within the balancing practices of […]

In general, LDCs continue to utilize most of their market area storage for seasonal baseload and peaking service. The key objectives for LDCs in eval­uating the use of storage are supply security, peak-day coverage, and cost minimization. Ownership of the storage gas, proximity to points of con­sumption, and minimization of pipeline demand charges impact the […]

Underground natural gas storage has traditionally been developed and used by pipelines and LDCs to optimize long haul capacity. Market area storage provided incremental city gate deliveries at the time required and in excess of long haul pipeline capacity. The natural gas industry invested in storage assets periodically as new market area deliverability was required. […]

Gas can be stored above ground in a holder, largely for balancing purposes, not for long-term storage. Holders store gas at district pressure so they can provide extra gas very quickly at peak times. Gas holders are perhaps most common in the United Kingdom and Germany and are of two types. One type includes column […]

Gas can be temporarily stored in a pipeline system via a process called line packing—adding more gas into a pipeline by increasing the pressure. During periods of high demand, greater quantities of gas may be withdrawn from a pipeline in the market area than are injected at the production area. Line packing is usually performed […]

Liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities provide delivery capacity during peak periods when market demand exceeds pipeline deliverability (Figure 8.5). LNG storage tanks possess a number of advantages over underground stor­age. Natural gas as a liquid at approximately -163°C (-260°F) occupies about FIGURE 8.5 Gas storage field surface facilities. 1/600 of the space of underground storage […]

Salt cavern storage sites are solution-mined cavities in existing salt domes and structures (Figure 8.4). These shallow cavities are filled with injected natural gas and act as high pressure storage vessels—in essence they are large underground storage tanks for natural gas. Advantages include: • Low base gas requirement of 25% that can approach 0% in […]

Aquifer storage involves injecting natural gas into underground formations that are initially filled with water (aquifers). The gas is injected at the top of the water formation and displaces the water down-structure. These types of reservoirs account for only 10 to 15% of total U. S. storage deliverability and exist mainly in the Midwest due […]