Underground Cavern Gas Storage Project

This is a unique feature of the Freeport LNG terminal, made possible by the terminal's proximity to the Stratton Ridge salt dome. Approximately a mile from the company's Stratton Ridge meter station, Freeport LNG is developing a natural gas underground storage cavern in the salt dome to be able to store natural gas in its gaseous rather than liquid form. The cavern, designed to have a working capacity of up to 7.5 Bcf of gas and injection/withdrawal rates around 500 MMcf per day, will be integrated into the operation of the LNG receiving facility.
	LNG terminal operations with integrated underground gas storage cavern
	Integrating underground storage in the actual operations of the terminal achieves numerous cost and operational benefits. Salt cavern storage is cheaper to build than an LNG tank and it makes it possible for LNG terminal operators to maximize the utilization of the LNG facilities and provide maximum flexibility to terminal customers. For example, LNG tanks can be emptied at a higher rate, thereby allowing ships to unload in quick succession, while smoothing out gas deliveries into the market.
	Gas redelivery from underground storage, combined with gas from the LNG vaporizers, also would allow for significant variations in gas deliverability and cost-effectiveness: Customers will be able to profit from the high daytime peak gas demand on the power generation market. For Freeport LNG, the advantages will include injecting gas during low nighttime demand periods and paying low nighttime electricity rates.
	The solution-mining process of creating the cavern is under way and the cavern is expected to be in-service in late 2011 or early 2012. At that time, the Freeport LNG facility will have the equivalent of about 15 Bcf of gas storage, which represents a very favorable ratio between the storage capacity and the throughput capacity sold to customers.
	Underground gas storage in salt dome