Statoil and its partners in the Etzel gas storage in northern Germany have reached agreement with IVG, the owner and technical operator, on extending the lease for existing gas storage and expanding capacity.
The facility currently holds about 500 million cubic metres of gas in subterranean caverns created by leaching out the salt. The partners have decided to almost double the storage capacity, with further expansions possible at a later stage.
Norwegian gas has been stored at Etzel since 1993, and the facility is currently used to store gas from such sources as the Kårstø processing plant north of Stavanger.
The store is located near the landfall terminals for Norwegian gas at Dornum and Emden in northern Germany. From there it is tied into the German transport network.
Statoil Deutschland is operator of the Etzel gas storage, and has a 20.1 per cent interest in the existing storage capacity. Pursuant to German energy legislation the company is also systems operator for its interest.