Accelerated mining method for salt-cavern gas storage

Underground gas storage, which serves as the auxiliary facility of the nature gas pipeline network, is veryimportant to maintain the stability of gas supply. In recent years, the construction of underground gas storage developsrapidly in China. However, due to the late construction, the underground gas storage cannot satisfy the growing demandof nature gas, and gas shortage has happened occasionally in winter. In view of the large investment and long constructiontime required for gas storage construction, generally 4 years required from mining to put into service, an accelerated miningmethod is put forward herein. Definitely, it is to inject gas while mining and to take the injected gas as the protective blanketof the cavity roof. In this way, not only the cost of blanket material can be reduced, but also the construction time can beshortened significantly. As shown in the simulation analysis, it is feasible to store gas while the underground storage isconstructed.