Bumstead

There is a close, symbiotic relationship between brine and natural gas liquids.  Most NGL storage is in huge underground caverns washed out of salt formations thousands of feet below the surface.  That washing or ‘leaching’ process makes lots of brine.  When the storage caverns or wells go into service, the NGLs replace the brine. But when NGLs are removed from the wells, brine must displace the NGL barrels.  Nowhere is this relationship between brine and NGLs more entwined with the history of the facilities than at Bumstead and Adamana, two storage facilities in Arizona.  Today we continue our series looking at the unique niche these two operations fill in the NGL marketplace and where they may be headed in the future.

We’ve talked a lot here about NGL storage in Mont Belvieu and Conway.  Those are the big underground storage caverns washed out of salt formations thousands of feet below the surface.  But those are not the only places where NGLs are stored in underground salt caverns.  Two important facilities, especially for West Coast NGL markets are located in the seemingly unlikely locations of Bumstead, AZ and Adamana, AZ.  Today and in a later follow up we’ll look at why these facilities are in Arizona, how they got there, and the unique niche they fill in the NGL marketplace.