The Möckow salt dome could store natural gas from Baltic Sea pipeline
EWE examines site for natural gas holder in Eastern West Pomerania
Oldenburg, 30th November 2006. The Oldenburg-based EWE AG intends to further expand its storage capacities for natural gas and plans to construct natural gas storage caverns in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Caverns are cavities created by the rinsing effect of subterranean salt formations. The salt dome Möckow in the local district of Eastern West Pomerania roughly 20 kilometres south of Greifswald is the intended site for the storage facility. Seismic tests followed by test bores planned for early 2007 will decide whether the salt dome is suitable. According to EWE construction could begin at the beginning of 2008 at the earliest.
EWE already runs 23 storage caverns in Lower Saxony. A further two in Rüdersdorf near Berlin are under construction.
The need for the planned natural gas storage facility has been occasioned by the probable routing of the Baltic Sea pipeline "Nord Stream" near Greifswald, which transports Russian natural gas to Western Europe. “Should the preliminary examinations prove positive the project will see us creating a storage facility for natural gas located near a strategically important landing point. This also gives EWE the opportunity to systematically expand its storage service capacities; a service which EWE has been providing for many years", reported CEO Dr. Werner Brinker.
Once approval has been granted by the mining authorities in Stralsund, seismic recordings will be taken over a surface area of 50 square kilometres. The recording points lie roughly between the communities Hanshagen, Karlsburg, Züssow and Lühmannsdorf.
EWE points out that the measuring teams for the seismic recordings and their vehicles will be out and about on the roads and country paths for around four weeks. The teams use three 22 tonne vehicles that employ vibrations to generate sound waves. In several inaccessible forest areas the sound waves are to be generated with the aid of small carefully controlled explosions detonated in bore holes around ten metres deep.
Land owners and tenants will be approached personally from the beginning of December. In the autumn of 2007 a test bore hole is planned to provide more information on whether the salt dome is suitable to accommodate the caverns.
The Möckow salt structure is, according to EWE, the only salt deposit in for miles around Greifswald which appears suitable as a site for a natural gas storage facility. The surface of the salt dome has been shown to lie at a bore depth of 800 metres. The salt dome is around 2,000 metres.
Information on the project will soon be available in the Züssow offices.
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