Cedigaz, the international association focused on natural gas statistics, has extended the range of its services in adding a worldwide database of existing and projected underground gas storages facilities.
As of 1 October 2009, 638 underground gas storages (UGS) were in operation worldwide, representing a total working capacity of 328.9 billion cubic meters (10.7% of global gas consumption). The great majority of facilities are located in America (446), the United States (US) in particular (395 sites).
Europe ranks second with 129 underground gas storages. More than half of them are concentrated in three countries: Germany (47 sites), France (15 sites), and Italy (10 sites).
The remaining UGS facilities are located in the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S), which holds 50 sites (half of them are in Russia), and in Asia/Oceania. In this latter, 12 sites can be broken down as follows: 5 in Japan, 4 in Australia, 2 in China, and 1 in Taiwan.
As far as underground gas storage projects are concerned, Cedigaz has identified 199 new storage facilities or expansions of existing ones that are either under construction, under development, or planned.
The breakdown of these projects reveals Europe as the most dynamic region, with 123 projects (62% of the total) representing more than 75 bcm of additional working capacity, compared to the current 82 bcm available.
Beside Europe, 51 projects have been identified in America, with almost the totality in the US (47 sites). Mexico also plans to develop two new UGS facilities. Other few countries studied the opportunity to develop new storages: Brazil started a feasibility study for an aquifer storage in 2002, which is still to be developed. Uruguay has also planned to develop an aquifer in Santa Lucia for several years. Finally, Chile and Venezuela are also considering the opportunity to develop some underground storages in the future.
In the C.I.S, 13 projects are ongoing: 6 in Russia, 3 in Belarus, 2 in Azerbaijan, 1 in Armenia, and finally 1 in Georgia, where the company Socar intends to develop the country's first storage facility with 300 million cubic meters of working capacity.
In Asia/Oceania, which holds only 1.8% of the total number of existing facilities, 8 projects have been identified, representing 4% of the total projects worldwide (199). China and Australia represent the bulk of this amount with respectively 4 and 2 projects. In addition, Pakistan and New Zealand each plan to convert a depleted field into a first new underground gas storage.
According to Cedigaz, these 199 projects could add more than 80 bcm of working gas capacity in the World by 2015, a 24% increase compared to a volume of 328.9 bcm available as of 1 October 2009. This rapid development of underground gas storages worldwide can be partially explained by the following factors:
- The emergence of security of supply issues at the Eastern borders of Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Poland)
- The plunging production in the United Kingdom associated to a historical lack of storage capacity
- Growing LNG imports in Italy and Spain in parallel with a greater penetration of natural gas in their energy mix.
- Fast growing gas consumption in emerging gas markets with no or limited storage capacities so far (China, South America).
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