Natural gas can be stored for an indefinite period of time. We extract the gas, process and transport it to its destination. Sometimes it is not necessarily needed at the time that it arrives. The need for natural gas can be seasonal. We typically need a lot more of it in the winter for heating. Our dependency on natural gas for other electronic needs has started a trend towards using a lot of natural gas in the summer months as well. Therefore, we need somewhere to store it in case we need it. This ensures that the gas supplies will be there when society demands them.



In the mid-eighteenth century, we used mainly coal gas. Also known as town gas because of its wide use in towns, coal gas needed to be stored. Huge metal tanks called gasometers were commonly used to store the gas. Coal gas was used for lighting, heat and cooking. Gasometers were big metal tanks encased in a cage. The metal tank would sink into the ground as the gas supplies were depleted. Coal gas was used until the late twentieth century when large natural gas fields were discovered. Since then, natural gas has been transported by pipeline and made more widely available for use. Natural gas was also a cheaper safer alternative to coal gas, so the use of coal gas pretty much dissipated.

Today, natural gas can be stored in a number of ways. One way is to store it underground. Sometimes it can be stored in old salt mines. Aquifers and old depleted gas reservoirs are other options. Natural gas is too flammable to be stored in tanks for long periods of time where they will be exposed to heat. Also, in gaseous form, natural gas reserves can take up huge amounts of space. Aquifers are strong underground rock formations that can hold water, so they are a great place for storing gas.

Old gas reservoirs, when empty, have plenty of porous rock that held natural gas at one time, so they too are a perfect place to store natural gas. Empty gas reservoirs are the most common place to store natural gas at this time. They are mainly used to store gas that meets the normal demands of society and business. It usually takes about a year to use the amount of gas stored up in an underground reservoir. Getting the gas out and to the public can be time consuming, so sometimes other methods of storage are required.

Natural gas is stored in aquifers and salt mines to supply us with gas demands that are sudden or unexpected. We can retrieve the gas quickly from these locations. We can go through these types of gas stores in just a few days or weeks. We now have natural gas storage facilities all over the United States and can access them for long-term or emergency gas demands.