lenaitch
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I don't know the details about storing liquid petroleum underground but suspect it relies more on geology rather than simply abandoned holes in the ground.
Pipelines, energy and natural resources
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AI....
In North America, salt caverns provide a highly secure, cost-effective method for bulk petroleum and natural gas liquids (NGL) storage. They are created by solution mining—pumping freshwater into underground salt deposits and extracting the dissolved brine. Because rock salt is impermeable, it prevents hydrocarbons from leaking or migrating.
United States
The US operates the world's largest salt cavern-based strategic crude oil reserve. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is maintained by the Department of Energy to secure the country against severe supply interruptions.
Storage Sites: The reserve consists of massive caverns clustered at five sites in deep salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana coasts:
Bryan Mound (Freeport, TX): ~20 caverns holding 254 million barrels.
Big Hill (Winnie, TX): ~160 million barrels of authorized storage.
West Hackberry (near Lake Charles, LA): ~227 million barrels.
Bayou Choctaw (Baton Rouge, LA): ~76 million barrels.
Weeks Island (~1.1 million barrels capacity).
Total Capacity: The SPR's maximum authorized capacity exceeds 700 million barrels.
Commercial and NGL Storage:
Beyond government strategic reserves, numerous commercial salt caverns are used across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to hold working inventory of crude oil, propane, butane, and ethylene.
Canada
Canada primarily uses underground salt caverns to store natural gas and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) like condensate, propane, butane, and ethylene.
Unlike the US SPR, Canada's federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States) strategy relies more on industry-held inventories.
Alberta: The vast majority of cavern storage is located in bedded salt formations in Alberta.
Major facilities, including the ATCO Salt Cavern Storage Expansion Project, are concentrated in the province's "Industrial Heartland" around Fort Saskatchewan. More than 100 salt caverns have been utilized across Alberta for decades to store hydrocarbons.
Southern Ontario: About 71 operational solution-mined salt caverns are situated near Windsor and Sarnia. These are crucial for storing hydrocarbons—such as ethylene, propane, and butane—that are either liquids or become liquid under storage pressures.
Emerging Regions: New frontiers are developing, such as the Fischells Salt Dome in western Newfoundland, which is considered the only domal salt formation in Canada and is being eyed for large-scale energy storage, including clean hydrogen and compressed air.
....
Potash is a salt.
In North America, salt caverns provide a highly secure, cost-effective method for bulk petroleum and natural gas liquids (NGL) storage. They are created by solution mining—pumping freshwater into underground salt deposits and extracting the dissolved brine. Because rock salt is impermeable, it prevents hydrocarbons from leaking or migrating.
United States
The US operates the world's largest salt cavern-based strategic crude oil reserve. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is maintained by the Department of Energy to secure the country against severe supply interruptions.
Storage Sites: The reserve consists of massive caverns clustered at five sites in deep salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana coasts:
Bryan Mound (Freeport, TX): ~20 caverns holding 254 million barrels.
Big Hill (Winnie, TX): ~160 million barrels of authorized storage.
West Hackberry (near Lake Charles, LA): ~227 million barrels.
Bayou Choctaw (Baton Rouge, LA): ~76 million barrels.
Weeks Island (~1.1 million barrels capacity).
Total Capacity: The SPR's maximum authorized capacity exceeds 700 million barrels.
Commercial and NGL Storage:
Beyond government strategic reserves, numerous commercial salt caverns are used across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to hold working inventory of crude oil, propane, butane, and ethylene.
Canada
Canada primarily uses underground salt caverns to store natural gas and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) like condensate, propane, butane, and ethylene.
Unlike the US SPR, Canada's federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States) strategy relies more on industry-held inventories.
Alberta: The vast majority of cavern storage is located in bedded salt formations in Alberta.
Major facilities, including the ATCO Salt Cavern Storage Expansion Project, are concentrated in the province's "Industrial Heartland" around Fort Saskatchewan. More than 100 salt caverns have been utilized across Alberta for decades to store hydrocarbons.
Southern Ontario: About 71 operational solution-mined salt caverns are situated near Windsor and Sarnia. These are crucial for storing hydrocarbons—such as ethylene, propane, and butane—that are either liquids or become liquid under storage pressures.
Emerging Regions: New frontiers are developing, such as the Fischells Salt Dome in western Newfoundland, which is considered the only domal salt formation in Canada and is being eyed for large-scale energy storage, including clean hydrogen and compressed air.
....
Potash is a salt.
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nobody seems to talk about refineries. We have closed down numerous ones over the last couple of decades; at least 4 that I know of in the golden horseshoe alone. Is it not advantageous to distill and ship finished product? I mentioned it earlier but with California shuttering theirs due net zero would it not be profitable to pick up the slack including shipping globally?
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