Wingas GmbH, Kassel, Germany, completed the transformation of its
Rehden gas field into Western Europe's largest underground gas storage facility.
Wingas is a 65-35 joint venture of Wintershall AG and OAO Gazprom and will deliver gas to Rehden, which lies 60 km south of Bremen, through its Midal trunk line, built to transport imported North Sea gas (OGJ, Dec. 30, 1996, p. 23).
The Rehden facility will enable Wingas to meet daily and seasonal fluctuations in demand for natural gas and was completed at a cost of 750 million deutschemarks ($410 million). It will store enough gas to meet the needs of 2 million households for 1 year.
The field's original gas reservoir pressure was 280 bar, and this is the operating pressure for the storage facility. A Wingas official told OGJ that the conversion involved the installation of 7 compressors with combined rating of 88 MW. This increased the field's working storage capacity to 4.2 billion cu m of gas from 2.6 billion cu m, with a further 2.8 billion cu m serving as "cushion gas" to maintain reservoir pressure.
Gas is pumped into the field through 16 wells at a rate of up to 1.4 million cu m/hr and can be recovered at a rate of up to 2.4 million cu m/hr.
The Rehden field was brought into production in 1954 and was finally depleted just before the conversion began. The storage area lies in the Zechstein dolomite formation at a depth of 1,900-2,100 m and extends over 6 sq km.
