The underground storage of hydrocarbons is the most economical engineering method known to store a large volume of hydrocarbons and has been widely practiced else where in the world. Because of the recovery difficulties, however, this storage technique is confined to light hydrocarbons.
Usually, depleted oil and gas reservoirs are converted to underground gas storages where the underline aquifer behavior controls the storage volume and the pressure. Actual case study examples are decribed in this paper together with the engineering design and model analysis.
Because of the growing Korea's need for bulk volume gas storage, development plans are necessary to apply some of these techniques to Korea. Three different underground storage possibilities are proposed. The utilization of dry holes resulted from petroleum exploration work is a possibility for gas storage if an impermeable rock structure extends over an aquifer. Alternatively, the low temperature geothermal well could similarly be converted to a small gas storage under same assumptions, after a successful energy recovery operation for a moderate economic gain. Lastly, the Jejudo Manjanggool natural cave is a good prospect for a constant volume LPG storage. Because of the many uncertainties and engineering difficulties, sufficient development work must be carried out before attempting to put these into actual practices.