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Construction of China’s largest commercial underground oil reserve project began in Zhejiang Province on Saturday.
It is expected to facilitate the rapid storage, processing and turnover of imported crude oil after completion, and secure stable domestic supply of oil and gas.
Located in Ningbo City, the project was independently designed and developed by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). It consists of 3 million cubic meters of underground crude oil caverns, and ground facilities for crude oil storage, transportation and other supporting functions.
The project involves manual excavation of caverns in the rock mass for storing crude oil, and uses stable underground water level pressure to form a water seal, which features large storage capacity, high safety and low storage loss.
By adopting self-developed core technologies such as full-condition water storage testing, the underground crude oil caverns can be operational for 50 years without maintenance, Wu Guangzeng, general manager of CNOOC Petrochemical Engineering told China Media Group.
The project is scheduled to be completed and put into service by the end of 2026, according to Liu Daping, chairman of CNOOC Petrochemicals Import & Export.
It will then “provide stable crude oil supply to east China and along the Yangtze River, which is of great significance for further promoting the dynamic balance of local oil supply and demand, responding to major energy supply emergencies, and enriching the digital transformation practice of the energy industry,” said Liu.
Safe with lower cost
Currently, China’s commercial oil reserves mainly include ground storage tanks and groundwater-sealed caverns.
Compared with ground storage tanks, the latter is built at a certain depth underground with a reduction in the construction cost by about 20 percent and the operating cost by about 50 percent.
It also outperforms in environmental protection as the underground oil caverns, if of the same scale, can save about 63.3 hectares of land, while solve the problem of oil evaporation loss.
More than 200 underground water-sealed caverns have been built around the world.
The project will open up a new path to promote China’s commercial oil reserves and ensure the sustained, rapid and coordinated development of its economy.
