Underground Gas Storage in Georgia

Abstract

Underground gas storage (UGS) plays a key role in gas supply both under normal operational circumstances as well as in case of supply emergencies. Most underground formations in Georgia with UGS potential have previously been identified and investigated. Two areas have been screened: Depleted or partly depleted oil fields east of Tbilisi and a large aquifer belt on the Black Sea coast. The EU TACIS project has demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of a UGS facility at the Ninotsminda oil field, 60km east of Tbilisi. Estimated unit costs for storage services from that facility are comparable and in some cases more favorable than fee rates charged by EU UGS operators for similar services.

Establishing UGS will double Georgia’s security of supply-index and gas supply from Azerbaijan will quadruple the index compared with today’s situation. But foreign investors are reluctant and awaiting major improvements in the energy sector’s commercial performance and abolishment of political interference in the sector’s regulation.

Papava: Petroleum Geologist. Sidamonidze: Reservoir Engineer EU TACIS Project on Rehabilitation of Gas Transmission System in Georgia, June 2002–June 2003