TEXAS BRINE LLC IS DRILLING RELIEF WELL NEXT TO-- SINKHOLE IN ASSUMPTION PARISH?

After being used for nearly 30 years, the cavern was plugged in 2011 and officials believe the integrity of the cavern may have somehow been compromised, leading to the sinkhole.

Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources required that Texas Brine drill a well to investigate the salt cavern as soon as possible, obtain samples from the cavern and provide daily reports on the findings.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS...IS THIS ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – The state Department of Natural Resources said Monday it has approved a drilling permit for a relief well in Assumption Parish, hoping the new well will shed some light on the source of a massive sinkhole that has transformed 300 feet of swamp into muck.

DNR Secretary Stephen Chustz said Houston-based Texas Brine Co. will drill into an abandoned brine cavern that the company owns in the Napoleonville salt dome in an effort to determine possible structural instability, pressures, or natural gas inside.

OH Thank God there not going to be setting up next to the sinkhole but several hundred feet away and drill directionally into it. HELLO!

“We are not going to bring a drilling rig in close proximity to the edge of the sinkhole…What we intend to do is set up several hundred feet away and drill directionally into the roof of the cavern. We’re aware of the risks,” Mark Cartwright, president of United Brine Services, a subsidiary of Texas Brine Co., said Friday at a press conference in Gonzales.

[link to thesinkhole.org]

I can believe it yes.

What I can't believe is why they make storage caverns in salt in the first place.

Keep reading, what you find ain't goner get any better.

Cool, poke holes in it and see what happens...hope they get it all on HD video!

Thanks for replying

You have some of the oddest, most entertaining comments Brief

Last chance to chuck a road flare in that sink hole.

Is it possible that the underground fault has filled with oil from the gulf spill.

I only say this because of an post on here about Jack Reeds Theory.

Thread: ***TRIPLE THREAT***Jack Reeds Theory--Sink Hole, New Madrid, St. Lawrence Seaway

Bayou Corne resident Vickie Guilbeaux said that a relief fund isn’t going to be enough for most people. Guilbeaux evacuated her home and has been staying in property she owns in Port Allen. Even if everything goes according to plan with the relief well, she said, she’d be too afraid to return.

“I will be scared every night and every day if I go back to my home. I don’t feel safe at all anymore,” she said.

She believes the relief fund won’t be enough for many of the residents who have decided not to evacuate.

Now I wonder how long it'll be before the growth of the sinkhole starts growing at a faster rate than we've already seen, or worse.

This is beyond ridiculous..

I agree, This all sounds to familiar especially with the relief wells being drilled to relieve pressure from sinkhole.

What is more amazing is how this news is being black listed.

I am completely dumbfounded how this has not made man stream news. Huge Sinkhole in Assumption Parish, People evacuated, and Texas Brine possibly responsible is this not news worthy.

What if the wells are drilled to expedite the growth of the sinkhole?

OMG! Are you from Ellsinore, MO

That is very possible.

Sorry, no I am not. Name is based on the 1974 Honda CR125 Elsinore motocross bike.

Thats cool, just thought since your were posting on here about New Madrid Zone and Sinkhole you might be close to me. Especially with the name Elsinore

My thinking is that if the TPTB wanted to create their chaos, this would be one avenue they would want to explore. I do not know for sure, but I am inclined to believe that it is exactly what is happening. This whole scenario smells, and it is not coming from the swamp.

Hi Lost....you do realize that this has all already taken place, right? The cavern was reached and drilled into on Sep 25th. Lots of threads about it. Search "sinkhole" here. Much more up to date news.

Here's an interesting write up about various ways to store gas,and the pros and cons.


[link to www.naturalgas.org]

Depleted Gas Reservoirs

The first instance of natural gas successfully being stored underground occurred in Weland County, Ontario, Canada, in 1915. This storage facility used a depleted natural gas well that had been reconditioned into a storage field. In the United States, the first storage facility was developed just south of Buffalo, New York. By 1930, there were nine storage facilities in six different states. Prior to 1950, virtually all natural gas storage facilities were in depleted reservoirs.

The most prominent and common form of underground storage consists of depleted gas reservoirs. Depleted reservoirs are those formations that have already been tapped of all their recoverable natural gas. This leaves an underground formation, geologically capable of holding natural gas. In addition, using an already developed reservoir for storage purposes allows the use of the extraction and distribution equipment left over from when the field was productive. Having this extraction network in place reduces the cost of converting a depleted reservoir into a storage facility. Depleted reservoirs are also attractive because their geological characteristics are already well known. Of the three types of underground storage, depleted reservoirs, on average, are the cheapest and easiest to develop, operate, and maintain.

The factors that determine whether or not a depleted reservoir will make a suitable storage facility are both geographic and geologic. Geographically, depleted reservoirs must be relatively close to consuming regions. They must also be close to transportation infrastructure, including trunk pipelines and distribution systems. While depleted reservoirs are numerous in the U.S., they are more abundantly available in producing regions. In regions without depleted reservoirs, like the upper Midwest, one of the other two storage options is required.

Geologically, depleted reservoir formations must have high permeability and porosity. The porosity of the formation determines the amount of natural gas that it may hold, while its permeability determines the rate at which natural gas flows through the formation, which in turn determines the rate of injection and withdrawal of working gas. In certain instances, the formation may be stimulated to increase permeability. For information on well treatment, click here.

In order to maintain pressure in depleted reservoirs, about 50 percent of the natural gas in the formation must be kept as cushion gas. However, depleted reservoirs, having already been filled with natural gas and hydrocarbons, do not require the injection of what will become physically unrecoverable gas; that gas already exists in the formation.

Aquifers

Aquifers are underground porous, permeable rock formations that act as natural water reservoirs. However, in certain situations, these water containing formations may be reconditioned and used as natural gas storage facilities. As they are more expensive to develop than depleted reservoirs, these types of storage facilities are usually used only in areas where there are no nearby depleted reservoirs. Traditionally, these facilities are operated with a single winter withdrawal period, although they may be used to meet peak load requirements as well.

Aquifers are the least desirable and most expensive type of natural gas storage facility for a number of reasons. First, the geological characteristics of aquifer formations are not as thoroughly known, as with depleted reservoirs. A significant amount of time and money goes into discovering the geological characteristics of an aquifer, and determining its suitability as a natural gas storage facility. Seismic testing must be performed, much like is done for the exploration of potential natural gas formations. The area of the formation, the composition and porosity of the formation itself, and the existing formation pressure must all be discovered prior to development of the formation. In addition, the capacity of the reservoir is unknown, and may only be determined once the formation is further developed.

In order to develop a natural aquifer into an effective natural gas storage facility, all of the associated infrastructure must also be developed. This includes installation of wells, extraction equipment, pipelines, dehydration facilities, and possibly compression equipment. Since aquifers are naturally full of water, in some instances powerful injection equipment must be used, to allow sufficient injection pressure to push down the resident water and replace it with natural gas. While natural gas being stored in aquifers has already undergone all of its processing, upon extraction from a water bearing aquifer formation the gas typically requires further dehydration prior to transportation, which requires specialized equipment near the wellhead. Aquifer formations do not have the same natural gas retention capabilities as depleted reservoirs. This means that some of the natural gas that is injected escapes from the formation, and must be gathered and extracted by 'collector' wells, specifically designed to pick up gas that may escape from the primary aquifer formation.

In addition to these considerations, aquifer formations typically require a great deal more 'cushion gas' than do depleted reservoirs. Since there is no naturally occurring gas in the formation to begin with, a certain amount of natural gas that is injected will ultimately prove physically unrecoverable. In aquifer formations, cushion gas requirements can be as high as 80 percent of the total gas volume. While it is possible to extract cushion gas from depleted reservoirs, doing so from aquifer formations could have negative effects, including formation damage. As such, most of the cushion gas that is injected into any one aquifer formation may remain unrecoverable, even after the storage facility is shut down. Most aquifer storage facilities were developed when the price of natural gas was low, meaning this cushion gas was not very expensive to give up. However, with higher prices, aquifer formations are increasingly expensive to develop.

All of these factors mean that developing an aquifer formation as a storage facility can be time consuming and expensive. In some instances, aquifer development can take 4 years, which is more than twice the time it takes to develop depleted reservoirs as storage facilities. In addition to the increased time and cost of aquifer storage, there are also environmental restrictions to using aquifers as natural gas storage. In the early 1980's the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set certain rules and restrictions on the use of aquifers as natural gas storage facilities. These restrictions are intended to reduce the possibility of fresh water contamination. To learn more about the Underground Injection Control program at the EPA, click here.

Salt Caverns


Underground salt formations offer another option for natural gas storage. These formations are well suited to natural gas storage in that salt caverns, once formed, allow little injected natural gas to escape from the formation unless specifically extracted. The walls of a salt cavern also have the structural strength of steel, which makes it very resilient against reservoir degradation over the life of the storage facility.

Essentially, salt caverns are formed out of existing salt deposits. These underground salt deposits may exist in two possible forms: salt domes, and salt beds. Salt domes are thick formations created from natural salt deposits that, over time, leach up through overlying sedimentary layers to form large dome-type structures. They can be as large as a mile in diameter, and 30,000 feet in height. Typically, salt domes used for natural gas storage are between 6,000 and 1,500 feet beneath the surface, although in certain circumstances they can come much closer to the surface. Salt beds are shallower, thinner formations. These formations are usually no more than 1,000 feet in height. Because salt beds are wide, thin formations, once a salt cavern is introduced, they are more prone to deterioration, and may also be more expensive to develop than salt domes.

Once a suitable salt dome or salt bed deposit is discovered, and deemed suitable for natural gas storage, it is necessary to develop a 'salt cavern' within the formation. Essentially, this consists of using water to dissolve and extract a certain amount of salt from the deposit, leaving a large empty space in the formation. This is done by drilling a well down into the formation, and cycling large amounts of water through the completed well. This water will dissolve some of the salt in the deposit, and be cycled back up the well, leaving a large empty space that the salt used to occupy. This process is known as 'salt cavern leaching'.

Salt cavern leaching is used to create caverns in both types of salt deposits, and can be quite expensive. However, once created, a salt cavern offers an underground natural gas storage vessel with very high deliverability. In addition, cushion gas requirements are the lowest of all three storage types, with salt caverns only requiring about 33 percent of total gas capacity to be used as cushion gas.

Salt cavern storage facilities are primarily located along the Gulf Coast, as well as in the northern states, and are best suited for peak load storage. Salt caverns are typically much smaller than depleted gas reservoirs and aquifers, in fact underground salt caverns usually take up only one one-hundredth of the acreage taken up by a depleted gas reservoir. As such, salt caverns cannot hold the volume of gas necessary to meet base load storage requirements. However, deliverability from salt caverns is typically much higher than for either aquifers or depleted reservoirs. Therefore natural gas stored in a salt cavern may be more readily (and quickly) withdrawn, and caverns may be replenished with natural gas more quickly than in either of the other types of storage facilities. Moreover, salt caverns can readily begin flowing gas on as little as one hour's notice, which is useful in emergency situations or during unexpected short term demand surges. Salt caverns may also be replenished more quickly than other types of underground storage facilities.

...................End

I didn't realize gas was actually stored in aquifers too. That's confusing to me, since everyone is in a panic now because gas in now being found in our aquifers.

As far as storing in salt domes, it makes sense to me. I'd prefer salt dome storage over above ground tank storage (less vulnerable), but I feel that they should simply not allow any residential building within a certain perimeter of them.

Yes I know! I was trying to focus more on the functions of Texas Brine LLC and there findings

I talked with a local reporter here in Jackson ms and told her about whats going on with the sinkhole and she was at complete amazement that no one was reporting on the issue and she sad she would look into it. she then contacted me and said that she had talked to a local news station and they said its a subject too hard to report on because of the location of the sinkhole so I proceeded to tall her about how big and deep it was so she said she would look into it further.... She then contacted me yesterday with a bunch of misinformation and basically told me "I" was full of shit that the sinkhole was small and wasn't in any danger for the locals and that there was nothing she could do.


I wounder if she talked to someone that may have told her to keep her nose out of their business?? Seems strange how at first she was all interested in finding out what was going on then her whole demeanor changed after she talked with some of the head honchos.... TPTB???

Well I do understand that no one can get there. That's a big problem as it forces one to accept the flyovers dimensions etc as reported by >?

I understand that also but why hasn't it made national MSM? The gulf oil spill made news the next day. This has been going on since AUGUST???

did anyone notice that this story is dated "Aug 13" ?