GDF Suez unit, Storengy, said it has opened the £500 million Stublach gas storage facility in Cheshire, United Kingdom.
The Stublach site has so far commissioned two salt caverns, which represent a capacity of 40 million cubic metres now available to the UK gas market. A further three caverns will be available by the end of December 2014, bringing the capacity to 100 million cubic metres. The site will eventually have up to 20 caverns with a total capacity of 400 million cubic metres.
With a current 6% gas storage ratio (storage capacity/gas consumption), the UK is well below the European Union average (22%). As the UK becomes more dependent on gas imports and the likelihood of an increasingly flexible demand, new storage sites will play an important role to meet the needs of the gas market, and by 2020 Stublach will be the largest UK onshore underground gas storage facility.
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Press Release; Image: GDF Suez