CNPC Puts Lei-61 Underground Storage in Service
According to CNPC, Lei-61 natural gas underground storage facility, located in Northeast China’s Liaoning, was kicked off from August 7, 2020. As the second storage facility of Liaohe Field, Lei-61 was designed with 525 mcm total capacity and 340 mcm working capacity. Matched for CREP (Power of Siberia), Lei-61 started the construction from November 2019 and finished three wells in 9 months.
By far, China has 27 underground storage facilities with a total working capacity over 23.1 bcma. However, according to inside sources, China’s working gas level was only less than 5 bcm in April 2020, and even after several months of intense input from late February, the total volume of underground working gas was still at a relative low level by far.
CNPC and Sinopec both decided to maintain the high intensity of input operation till the beginning of this winter peaking season, so as to store as much cheap natural gas as possible, which was regasified from LNG spot at terminals. For instance, by August 12, North China’s CNPC Dagang Facility has finished 97.8% of annual input schedule, and Central China’s Sinopec Wen-23 Facility also plans to keep input until winter coming.
