Integrity management system for geological body of salt-cavern gas storage

Abstract

The geological body management of gas storage is essential for the integrity management of Underground Gas Storage (UGS). However, the integrity management of geological body of gas storage is unclear in concept with fuzzy interface and incomplete system at present, and it is also limited to the integrity evaluation of gas reservoir UGS. Therefore, the concept of geological body of salt-cavern gas storage was defined based on the analysis of research results related to the geological body of gas reservoir UGS, and an integrity management system for geological body of salt-cavern gas storage was established. The results indicate that (1) the integrity management system for geological body of gas storage comprises 4 items, which are based on the hazard identification and data analysis and centered on the risk evaluation and integrity evaluation. (2) The risk analysis for geological body of salt-cavern gas storage focuses on the analysis of the 3 indicators, i.e., salt cavern shrinkage, gas leakage and land subsidence. (3) The salt-cavern storage integrity evaluation is composed of 3 major evaluation technologies, i.e., stability evaluation of salt cavern and surface, fault stability evaluation, and integrity evaluation of interbed and caprock. In conclusion, the establishment of the integrity management system for geological body of salt-cavern storage complements the shortage of geological body management in UGS integrity management, and also provides technical support and new application direction for the safe operation management.

Keywords

• underground gas storage
• geological body of salt-cavern gas storage
• integrity management
• risk evaluation
• integrity evaluation