Influencing factors of solution mining for salt cavern gas storage

Abstract

Salt cavern gas storage has attracted growing attention for its advantages of large throughput and flexible injection and production. A mass of cavity completion data shows that the final cavity volume of salt cavern gas storage deviates from the initial design volume to some extent, so it is particularly important to maximize the utilization of salt bed. Combined with the example of solution mining in Jintan Salt Cavern Gas Storage, through detailed analysis of the impact of two major factors, i.e. the underground anomalies and the mutual interaction of surface adjacent wells, on the cavity volume in the solution mining process, it is believed that the cavity diameter, the existence of interbed, partial dissolution of cavity, deviation of well trajectory, etc. in cavity construction stage have great effect on the solution mining. Therefore, in the process of solution mining, volume expansion should be fully carried out in cavity construction stage, effective interbed treatment schemes should be prepared, and various dynamic parameters should be carefully monitored to prevent anomalies such as partial dissolution and pipe string falling off in the solution mining process for the maximum utilization of salt bed.

Keywords

• salt cavern gas storage
• volume loss
• underground anomalies
• interaction of adjacent wells
• improved scheme