Smoky and the Salt Caverns – A Saga of NGL Storage
Over the next five years, production of natural gas liquids (NGL’s) from gas processing plants will increase by at least one million barrels per day, or about 40% over 2012. Perhaps more. That’s good news for natural gas producers, processors and end-use markets. But there is a catch. The rate of production does not match up with demand. While production is a steady, “ratable” volume, demand is anything but ratable. Demand swings with petchem feedstock economics, the gasoline blending season, weather and a myriad of other factors. The flywheel that balances supply and demand on any given day is storage. But not just any storage. For NGLs, storage of large volumes means salt caverns. Huge caverns thousands of feet below the surface. In this NGL storage blog series starting today, we’ll look at the history of NGL salt storage, where it exists, how it is used, and where more of it is needed. In this first installment we’ll go all the way back to the origin of NGL salt storage. All the way back to Smoky Billue.
