About us
STORAG ETZEL GmbH is the largest independent supplier of cavern storage facilities in Germany, making a valuable contribution to energy security and gas grid stability in Germany and northwestern Europe.
At the Etzel site in East Frisia, we have been building, maintaining and leasing underground storage capacity for gas and oil since 1971 and want to position the site for the future and make it H2-ready as part of the H2CAST project.
Due to its unique geology, Etzel offers excellent conditions for the storage of liquid and gaseous energy sources. A massive salt dome at a depth of over 750 meters enables the safe storage of large quantities of natural gas and crude oil.
Energy security
Currently, around 3.9 billion cubic meters of gas are stored here in 51 caverns. A further 24 caverns can store over 10 million cubic meters of crude oil.
Company structure
Tenants of the caverns are well-known energy trading companies as well as oil stockholding organizations of various European countries. Among other things, a part of the German crude oil reserve is stored in Etzel.
STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH not only operates the company's own surface facilities, but is also the technical operator for the gas operating facility of the Etzel Gas Lager (EGL).
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Since the beginning of 2020, the owner of STORAG ETZEL GmbH has been PATRIZIA Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft, which acts on behalf of German institutional investors. The investors are investors from the insurance industry, pension funds and foundations. Through a cavern fund launched in 2008, they already own the majority of the oil and gas caverns at the Etzel site.
The company name "STORAG ETZEL GmbH" was chosen very deliberately. On the one hand, the naming of the location in the company name emphasizes the connection with our home community. At the same time, the name in the designed logo version explains our entrepreneurial activity: "Storage" is the English term for "storage" or "keeping". In German, the [o] and [e] in STORAG ETZEL are pronounced long, by the way: [ʃto:rak e:tsel].
Management
The company STORAG ETZEL GmbH* and its subsidiary, STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH*, each with its registered office in Friedeburg, have identical management.
*The two companies were managed as IVG Caverns GmbH (now: STORAG ETZEL GmbH) and IVG Kavernenbetriebsführungsgesellschaft mbH (now: STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH) respectively until 01.07.2016.
Boris Richter - Managing Director
Boris Richter is responsible for the strategic and commercial matters of STORAG ETZEL and, together with the long-standing technical managing director Christoph Uerlich, for relations with the tenants of the caverns as well as for communication with the public.
With Boris Richter, STORAG ETZEL has been able to gain a highly accomplished financial expert from the oil and gas industry in September 2020, who has more than 15 years of experience in the areas of financial management, corporate and project controlling, and support for operations, among others.
Christoph Uerlich - Managing Director
The managing director Christoph Uerlich is a proven technical expert. He looks back on more than 25 years of experience in the German oil and gas industry and has been working at the Etzel site as Managing Director of STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH since 2008. In this position, he was already responsible in the past for monitoring the storage processes of natural gas and crude oil in the underground caverns as well as for controlling the operational brine process during the construction of new caverns. Mr. Uerlich has continued to hold this position in addition to his activities as Managing Director of STORAG ETZEL GmbH since 2015.
Management Team of STORAG ETZEL GmbH
The management is supported by an extended management team, which operationally manages the business:
- Katja Lux: Head of Finance & Administration
STORAG ETZEL GmbH - Michael Dittel: Maintenance Manager / Projects
STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH - Karsten Peter: Head of Asset- & Business Development
STORAG ETZEL GmbH - Carsten Reekers: Cavern Operations Manager / Special Projects
STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH - Marcel Sodmann: Head of public relations and mine surveying
STORAG ETZEL GmbH - Roger Wittkopf: Manager Operation Surface Plants
STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH - Thorsten Brüling: Head of Purchase
STORAG ETZEL GmbH - Bernhard Diermann: Head of Documentation, IT and Quality Assurance
STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH - Peter Huss: Leiter: Head of Human Resources / Legal Affairs
STORAG ETZEL GmbH - Kurt-Jürgen Grabert: Head of Job Safety, Health & Environmental Protection
STORAG ETZEL Service GmbH