Oil & Gas
Over 50 years of expertise in underground storage at the Etzel cavern storage facility
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, the company has been building, maintaining and leasing large-volume underground storage capacity for oil and gas since 1971. Since 2007, the Etzel cavern facility has developed into one of the largest oil and gas storage sites in Europe. The Etzel site in integrated in the international pipeline network for both oil and gas and serves as an important energy hub in northwestern Germany.
Tenants of the caverns are well-known energy trading companies as well as oil stockholding organizations of various European countries. Among other things, part of the German crude oil reserve is stored in Etzel.
24 caverns for oil storage
STORAG ETZEL is one of the largest crude oil storage facilities in Europe, with a storage volume of more than 10 million cubic meters spread over 24 caverns. The Etzel site is connected to the tank farm of the Nord-West-Ölleitungsgesellschaft (NWO) in Wilhelmshaven. From there, the crude oil can be sent for processing either via pipelines or ocean-going vessels. The volume of oil stored underground in an environmentally friendly manner at Etzel would require around 100 tanks on an area of 8 km² in a conventional tank farm above ground.
51 Caverns for gas storage
The operation of the gas caverns in Etzel requires special and state-of-the-art gas operating facilities that fall directly under the responsibility of the gas tenants. Currently, four operator consortia have long-term commitments to the Etzel site.
Since 2007, the STORAG ETZEL cavern facility has been developing into one of the largest oil and gas storage sites in Europe. In addition to the 75 caverns currently in place, further storage caverns can be created in the Etzel salt dome. There is a potential for expansion to 99 cavern sites. Already today, a considerable part of the total volume of all German crude oil and natural gas reserves is stored in Etzel.
The gas infrastructure at the site has excellent direct access to a total of 4 supra-regional pipelines, the NETRA (entry and exit intermediate station), the Emden-Etzel pipeline and the Bunde-Etzel pipeline (BEP). The BEP was completed in 2011, connecting the cavern facility with the gas pipeline node in Bunde/Oude Statenzijl over 60 km and connecting Etzel to the Dutch gas grid.
Another pipeline (Wilhelmshaven connection pipeline / WAL) from Wilhelmshaven with a connection to the long-distance gas network near Etzel was completed at the end of 2022. Around 7.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year can be landed via Wilhelmshaven and fed into the long-distance gas network. In future, up to 20 billion cubic metres of gas per year will be transported via this pipeline. This alone would replace 40 per cent of the annual Russian gas deliveries of recent years.
The ‘future pipeline’ GWL (Wilhelmshaven-Leer gas connection) has been in operation since the end of January 2024 and is an integral part of the German gas grid. The pipeline is ‘H2-ready!’ and runs from nearby Sande to Nüttermoor/Jemgum.
Since autumn 2024, construction has been underway on the Etzel-Wardenburg natural gas pipeline (EWA), which will connect the Wilhelmshaven LNG site via the Etzel storage facility to the Wardenburg compressor station and thus to the German natural gas grid. This pipeline will later become part of a hydrogen network.
Storage marketing
Oil & Gas
Available storage space
From mid-2022, STORAG ETZEL will have around 5 million m³ of free capacity for the medium- and long-term storage of oil. In addition, the inventory can be expanded by another 24 caverns - e.g. for natural gas or hydrogen. For further information and a non-binding offer, please contact us via our e-mail address:
Advantages of oil storage in caverns
In the Etzel salt dome, we operate 24 caverns for the storage of oil. Due to the large available cavity volume and the low operating costs compared to aboveground tank storage, caverns are excellently suited for the long-term storage of crude oil.
Therefore, caverns are particularly used for the storage of the legal crisis stockpile requirement of some European countries. The facility is connected via a 44" long-distance pipeline (110 cm) to the NWO oil port in Wilhelmshaven, which is about 25 km away from Etzel.
Ready for the future
The Etzel site is ready for the future: In addition to storing fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, renewable energies can also be stored in caverns, e.g. by converting surplus electricity into hydrogen (H2) or synthetic natural gas (SNG = methane).
The operator STORAG ETZEL has already successfully converted oil caverns to gas storage in its operating history. In the context of the energy transition and decarbonization, the conversion of underground storage facilities from gas / oil to hydrogen is currently being investigated in the "H2CAST Etzel" project.
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