DOE Program for Studying the Use of Salt Caverns for Oil Field Waste Disposal John Ford National Petroleum Technology Office

Early Efforts n in 1995, at the request of the Railroad Commission of Texas, NPTO funded Argonne National Laboratory to investigate the technical feasibility and legality of disposing oil field wastes in salt caverns n found that cavern disposal was feasible –several caverns were already in use in Texas, Canada, and Europe n there were no legal prohibitions against cavern disposal –States may need to revise their regulations

Early Efforts - continued n the greatest environmental and health risk occurred following closure of caverns –more research was needed n DOE recommended that 4 research organizations join forces to form the Salt Cavern Research Partnership –Argonne National Laboratory –Sandia National Laboratories –Texas Bureau of Economic Geology –Solution Mining Research Institute

Other Baseline Studies n Argonne conducted two other studies to complete a baseline of information on cavern disposal n cost study –found that caverns could compete economically with other types of oil field waste disposal facilities in the same geographic area n risk study –found that the risks associated with various types of cavern failure scenarios were all below the EPA’s acceptable risk threshold

NORM Study n Argonne’s initial cavern studies looked at oil field wastes other than NORM n NPTO funded another study to evaluate NORM disposal in caverns –the same conclusions as mentioned above apply to NORM n Since then, the Railroad Commission has approved permits for at least two caverns to dispose of NORM waste

Salt Cavern Modeling Efforts n Sandia completed modeling investigations about the behavior of horizontal caverns formed in salt structures – identified potential sites for horizontal caverns –evaluated roof stability – calculated leaching times for different sized caverns

Salt Formation Investigation n the Bureau of Economic Geology evaluated and mapped the bedded salt formations in the Permian Basin –salt thickness –depth to top of salt –salt dissolution

Research on Post-Closure Behavior n Solution Mining Research Institute oversaw preparation of a bibliography for cavern behavior following plugging and abandonment –salt creep and rock strength behavior –permeability of rock salt –temperature and pressure –plugging and sealing

Public Education and Outreach n Salt Cavern Research Partnership Advisory Committee recommended that DOE fund a public education effort to provide information to both a wider audience and to nontechnical audiences n Argonne produced a brochure for nontechnical audiences and the Salt Cavern Information Website –all NPTO-funded cavern reports can be downloaded