From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Bergermeer gas storage
is an underground
natural gas storage
in the
Alkmaar
region north of
Amsterdam
in
the Netherlands
. It started operations in 2014. It is one of the largest gas storages in Europe.
[1]
Technical features
[
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]
The gas storage uses a depleted
gas reservoir
. The working volume of the gas storage will be 4.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) and a volume of cushion gas would be 4.6 bcm.
[2]
[3]
[4]
The gas storage will include 14 new wells to a depth of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), 35 kilometres (22 mi) of pipeline and the gas treatment facility. The gas treatment and compression facilities are being designed as a zero-emissions plant.
[3]
The project is expected to cost €800 million excluding the cost of cushion gas.
[3]
In August 2009,
Gazprom Export
?the export unit of
Gazprom
?was contracted to supply the project's cushion gas in exchange for gas storage services and a participating interest in operations of the facility. The final investment decision was made in October 2009. Assuming all permits are obtained, construction will start in mid-2010 with drilling of the 14 new wells expected to start in 2011.
[3]
Commercial operations will start due to resistance of local city councils in 2014 at the earliest.
[
citation needed
]
Project company
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]
The Bergermeer project consortium consists of TAQA Energy B.V. (a subsidiary of the
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company
),
Energie Beheer Nederland
(EBN),
Dyas B.V.
and
Suncor
.
[5]
The facility is operated by TAQA Energy
[1]
with out of hours market operations services provided by the UK based company GMSL.
[6]
Environmental constraints
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]
A number of scientific reports
[7]
[8]
however show that gas storage might bring about serious seismic hazard to the surrounding municipalities of
Bergen
,
Heiloo
and
Schermer
and the town of Alkmaar. The area has known a number of (man) induced earthquakes during the depletion of the field between 1994 and 2008, with subsequent higher magnitudes on the Richter scale. Scientists from a number of renowned scientific institutes such as KNMI, MIT
[8]
and TNO are comfortable with an estimated maximum magnitude of 3.9 on the Richter scale, with a chance of occurrence of 2% over the concession period. Earthquakes with lower magnitude but still quite damaging are of a much higher likelihood.
References
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]