Defining the Structure
The Appalachia Storage and Trading Hub will be more than
just storage. It will consist of a network of pipelines that will
connect to industrial sites within the petrochemical industry
such as the Shell cracker in Monaca, PA, and the PTT Global
Chemical cracker in Belmont County, Ohio.
The subsurface storage of the hub will act as intermediate
storage for raw materials, which is key to preventing upsets in
the supply chain. Companies like Shell and PTT Global will
then have surge capacity in raw materials stored so they will
not be forced to shut down operations in the case of an extreme
weather event or disaster because access to the hub’s materi-
als will enrich that supply. The pipelines will connect facilities
like the crackers to the hub’s subsurface caverns, which will
be created in either a limestone, sandstone or salt formation.
Limestone and salt formations make for ideal environments
for NGL storage due to their stability and porosity. The lime-
stone caverns would be 2,000 feet below surface and would
resemble a limestone mine with caverns and pillars to support
the roof. While limestone requires miners go underground to
carve out the caverns, the salt formation does not. With salt,
fresh water is pumped underground, dissolving the salt and
forming a cavern.
According to Anderson, there are a number of reasons why
underground storage is preferred.
“Ethane at the surface at normal pressures is a vapor,” he
explains. “It’s transported in the pipeline as a liquid under
high pressure. If you store very large amounts of ethane at high
pressure on the surface, many additional safety concerns must be
addressed. It also involves a lot of steel, which brings concerns
over the long haul about mechanical integrity through corrosion
and even punctures. The water pressure that exists underground,
called hydrostatic pressure, will be at a higher pressure than our
ethane. We will store ethane at a pressure that is lower than the
surrounding water pressure. If there is any leakage, it’s actually
leaking water into the cavern. You run a pump to remove it,
and it’s no big deal. If you were to store it in a big tank on the
surface, you don’t have that option. The atmosphere is at
normal atmospheric pressure, and you would be storing ethane
at a much higher pressure. If there were any leaks, it would
be leaking ethane. It’s much safer to store it underground.”
Anderson also explains that with the amount of storage
needed, the surface disturbance is pretty small with un-
derground caverns. “You have an access shaft if it’s mined
storage or you have wellheads just like oil and gas wells that
are at the surface,” he says. “You can have a whole series of
caverns underground and access a lot of space with a very
small surface footprint.”
Selecting the Site
Site selection is still underway for the Appalachia Storage
and Trading Hub. While West Virginians would love to see the
$36 billion facility within its state boundaries, it’s important
to understand that the final location of the hub doesn’t matter
as much as the actual construction of the hub.
“The industry spread is the win,” says Hedrick. “Competing
for the storage hub is like competing for the one cracker years
ago. The hub needs to be in Appalachia. If you want to do the
win-lose thing, the loss is to see all of our NGLs exported to
Southern West Virginia
Keeping Families Close
The mission of
Ronald McDonald House
Charities (RMHC) of
Southern West Virginia is
to provide a home away
from home for families of
sick children and to create
and support programs
that directly improve the
health and well-being of
those children.
The board and staff
at RMHC are proud
of Executive Director
Dewayne Dickens
for his contributions
to RMHC and the
communities it
serves and for being
recognized by West
Virginia Executive
magazine’s Spirit of
Service profile series.
CharlestonRMHC.org | (304) 346-0279