Salt Cavern Storage Services

• Feasibility and Preliminary Evaluation of Salt Cavern Facilities
• Geotechnical Evaluation / Site Assessments
• Design and Evaluation of Cavern Development Facilities
• Cavern Development Supervision
• Monitoring of Cavern Development Operations
• Sonar Surveys
• Drilling Programs / Completion Design
• Design and Evaluation of Surface Facilities for Storage Operations
• Compression and Process Equipment
• Development and Evaluation of Operating Procedures
• Development and Evaluation of Maintenance Programs
• Development and Evaluation of Safety Procedures
• Additional SolTech Services

Feasibility and Preliminary Evaluation of Salt Cavern Facilities

• Location of underground salt cavern
• Project location studies
• Quality of salt cavern
• Depth and thickness of the salt cavern
• Location, volume and quality of the wash water
• Location of the brine / produced water disposal facility
• Well configuration
• Storage capacity
• Injection / production rates
• Connection to product supply and market

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Geotechnical Evaluation / Site Assessments

SolTech can provide a study of geological, topographical, and geophysical conditions including the distance between caverns, adjacent activities, site selection, and an agreement of the maximum and minimum working pressures of the structure. SolTech offers a rock mechanic analysis of the cap rock and salt formation, assessing the cavern roof stability, potential for creep, and fracture conditions. SolTech can also assess existing and past subsurface activities, geological studies, regional stresses, rock properties, faulting, structural anomalies, and potential for subsidence, providing our clients with a complete overview of their underground storage facilities.

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Design and Evaluation of Cavern Development Facilities

SolTech can provide the design of salt cavern development leaching facilities, including operating and safety procedures. This encompasses process, civil, mechanical, and instrumentation engineering services, in addition to operations maintenance involving the creation and/or review of procedures and manuals, thus insuring the safe and reliable operation of cavern development equipment.

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Cavern Development Supervision

SolTech can provide supervision and control of the shape and volume of the cavern during leaching operations through the monitoring salt content and the volume of solution mining fluids in and out of the cavern. SolTech also offers assistance with the management of operations, including safety and environmental issues, and scheduling and monitoring of activities. Through the pressure testing of brine / buffer interface prior to commissioning, SolTech can ensure the mechanical integrity of well storage.

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Monitoring of Cavern Development Operations

SolTech offers ongoing monitoring and analysis of cavern development operations, determining the effectiveness of washing operations. Recommendations pertaining to the appropriate modifications required for increased efficiency are made based on the information / data gathered during the development of the cavern.

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Sonar Surveys

Engaged to evaluate cavern size and shape, appropriate sonar survey equipment and trained operators are employed to evaluate results.

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Drilling Programs / Completion Design

SolTech offers the management and coordination of specialists to design a complete drilling program, in addition to program development / modification during drilling to account for field conditions and anomalies. Drilling programs include:

• Details on logging: wireline logging for formation and hole evaluation – open hole and upon completion of baseline.
• Casing design: well control, porous formations, design for type of material stored and materials used.
• Cementing: types of cementing tops and placement.

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Design and Evaluation of Surface Facilities for Storage Operations

SSolTech can deliver the detailed design of new surface facilities, and the evaluation of existing facilities to determine their safety and operability, including the design of all instrumentation and control systems, thus ensuring safe and reliable operations.

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Compression and Process Equipment

SolTech has access to several Canadian equipment manufacturers who are available to quote on the supply of compression and process equipment. All of these manufacturers are licensed to provide equipment to China.

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Development and Evaluation of Operating Procedures

SolTech offers assistance for the development and ongoing review of facility operating procedures. This includes the training of operators such that they understand existing procedures and their contribution to the safe and economic operation of the facility.

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Development and Evaluation of Maintenance Programs

SolTech offers assistance in the development and evaluation of maintenance plans. SolTech will evaluate success rates in terms of the safe and economic operation of an underground storage facility. Equipment failures add to operational costs, increased downtime, and raise the risk of product loss, serious injury or loss of life. SolTech offers assistance in developing and updating maintenance programs, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of existing maintenance programs.

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Development and Evaluation of Safety Procedures

The development, maintenance or evaluation of safety programs is critical to the safe operation of any oil and gas facility. SolTech provides assistance by performing storage facility evaluations to identify the risks associated with the design and/or operations, minimizing the probability of serious incidents. SolTech can assist in the development of emergency response plans, and also offers technical assistance supporting HAZOP studies.

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Additional SolTech Services

• Incident Evaluation and Prevention

  Incidents involving underground storage facilities are typically related to errors in either design parameters or operational procedures. With the increasing emphasis placed on the environment, safety, and the corporate responsibility of senior executives, it is only prudent to have a periodic, independent evaluation of the design, maintenance, and operation of your storage facility.

  SolTech is in a unique position to conduct incident evaluation, and to provide recommended remedial action to minimize the occurrence of further incidents. If not remedied immediately, situations can escalate resulting in serious incidents with the possibility of loss of life and major expense.

• Management of Change

  SolTech offers assistance in implementing corrective measures including additional training. This can incorporate the establishment of new operating or emergency response procedures via to the evaluation, retraining, and certification of facilities personnel.

• Operator Training and Certification

  SolTech offers the development of Certification Programs for the qualification of operators involved in the development and operation of underground storage facilities.

• Environmental Issues

  SolTech can evaluate the environmental impacts of oil field wastes like drilling fluids, drill cuttings, completion and stimulation wastes, produced sand, tank bottoms, scales, and soil contaminated by crude oil or produced water. This evaluation can be extended to include those environmental impacts created by surface facilities, including: noise, air emissions, water borne emissions, and solid wastes.

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