Production • Processing • Handling
Converted salt caverns will boost UK’s gas storage A
tkins is supporting EDF Energy to bring ten large salt caverns into use as fast retrieval gas storage facilities,
boosting land-based facilities in the UK. The scheme is part of a push by energy firms to meet the Government’s target to quadruple current underground gas storage by 2021 to cope with extreme weather events such as the recent bout of cold weather. The caverns, which have maximum diameters greater
than the London Eye, are located near Warmingham, north of Crewe in Cheshire. They were bought by EDF Energy in April 2010 from British Salt and will be capable of supplying enough gas to meet the needs of three million average households. They are due to come on line in the Spring of 2011. EDF Energy is being advised by Dr Evan Passaris of engineering design consultancy, Atkins. Dr Passaris has worked on underground storage schemes in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, and he is acknowledged as a leading expert on underground gas storage. He says the increasing use of salt caverns will provide a major boost to the UK’s ability to respond to prolonged coldsnaps. “Salt caverns provide ideal underground gas storage facilities as the geological make-up of the thick layered impervious salt formation creates an ideal gas-tight container,” says Dr Passaris. “The advantage of using these over other forms of natural storage, such as porous rock found in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, is that salt cavern stored gas can be delivered in large quantities relatively quickly. The caverns are also comparatively easy to fill and it is will be possible to retrieve almost all of the stored gas when eventually the facility will be decommissioned.” The use of salt caverns for gas storage will allow EDF Energy to react quickly to short term needs by providing
a significant gain in its ability to meet the forecast energy demand.
Mark O’Brien, EDF Energy project director said: “Atkins
has brought a breadth of knowledge and experience to the project, providing the conceptual design, supporting bid evaluation and negotiation, and proposing project improvement opportunities. Atkins’ staff think outside of the box, are reliable, respond immediately to our questions and are respected in the industry. They have performed within budget, the quality of delivery is excellent and they have been a pleasure to work with, forming an integral part of our team.” According to Atkins’ Dr Passaris, bringing more of
underground gas storage facilities into operation must be a priority. “Annual consumption in the UK is currently
approximately 103 billion cubic metres. Storage capacity is less than 5 billion cubic metres or 4 per cent of the annual consumption, compared with 27 per cent in France and 21 per cent in Germany. Considered another way, in the event of a supply disruption, the UK has only about 14 days of storage, compared to 91 days in France,77 days in Germany and 65 days in Spain. However, the UK is catching up and over the last five or six years there has been an impetus in trying to bridge the gap and create the additional storage capacity we need.” “The drive for investment in new caverns won’t
produce an overnight transformation for our gas reserve quantities, but now that the UK’s naturally occurring reserves are falling there is a will to reach gas storage parity with other major EU countries”, he said. Converting the former salt caverns in Warmingham
has involved a multi-stage process, starting with an initial geomechanical assessment of each of the ten cavities to
Sealing technology launched F
lexitallic has developed a family of sealing products, which have already started to be used
around the world. Proven to reduce downtime, the new Flange Rescue Gasket (FRG) enables maintenance teams to get up and running quickly by providing high integrity sealing on damaged flanged connections. The development helps address sealing issues
involving sour hydrocarbon service on ageing assets. Since its inception the design has been successfully used across a wide variety of upstream and downstream sealing applications; and has been used in both reactive and proactive scenarios, as part of a wider corrosion management programme. The design gives careful consideration of
available flange sealing surfaces and the use of innovative sealing materials, such as Flexitallic’s
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range of restructured PTFE, Sigma and Thermiculite. An added benefit with the technology is it can be used across all flange sealing face configurations, including ring type joint grooves. To aid installation, each member of the flange
rescue gasket family is uniquely colour coded, providing confirmation of its presence in the flanged connection. Increase usage of the chemical resistant version
in alkylation plants and cryogenic version in low temperature are the latest products to be offered. ●
Enter 58 or ✔ at
www.engineerlive.com/iog Flexitallic Ltd is based in
Cleckheaton, Lancashire, UK.
www.flangerescuegasket.com
Recent projects include:
● Major infrastructure works, such as the design and programme management of the civil works for the Dubai Metro red and green lines in the UAE. ● Critical programme management of storm protection works in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana, USA, providing expertise in coastal restoration, engineering, environmental and GIS support to rebuild defences and protect habitats. ● High profile transport planning and urban design – our innovative scheme to deliver a diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus in London, UK, has helped tackle the problem of pedestrian crowding. ● Key rail projects – providing architectural and engineering design services on Crossrail, Europe’s biggest civil engineering project in London, UK, and designing stations, tunnelling and track systems for Gautrain, South Africa’s first high speed line. Atkins was named Consultancy of the Year in
the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010; received the first ever certification of the Carbon Trust Standard awarded to an engineering consultancy in the construction sector. ●
For more information visit
www.atkinsglobal.com
Subsea cables on display
T
he Tratos subsea cable range allows for hydraulic and injection fluids to be transmitted, as well as
power and data, depending on cable type. They are suited depths up to 2000m, with select umbilicals qualified to 3000m. The subsea umbilical cables are manufactured in alliance with Brazilian cable manufacturer MFX. Tratos produces the internal signalling and power. Tratos is exhibiting SPE Offshore Europe 2011 Oil
and Gas Conference and Exhibition (6-8th September) in Aberdeen, UK. ●
For more information visit
www.tratos.co.uk
ensure its structural integrity complied with strict safety criteria. A second access borehole was then drilled to allow the caverns to be filled with gas from the National Grid in order to flush out the residual brine - this process has just started. Each cavern is typically around 600 000 to 650 000 cubic metres and when in operation gas will be drawn from them equally and supplied back to the Grid.
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