FERC last Tuesday issued a certificate to Dominion Transmission Inc. (DTI) to convert existing oil wells at its Fink Storage Field in Lewis County, WV, to natural gas storage wells and to expand the existing storage reservoir boundary to stop further migration of gas from its storage operations.

Specifically, the project calls for Dominion Transmission to construct and operate certain facilities for the purpose of converting 15 existing oil field wells to gas storage facilities and then connect them to the pipeline’s existing Sweeney compressor station in order to conduct an inventory recycling operation. In addition, Dominion Transmission plans to expand the active reservoir boundary and add a protective boundary around the active storage pool.

The Fink Storage Field is part of the Fink-Kennedy/Lost Creek Storage Complex (FKLC) located in central West Virginia, which runs west to east for 26 miles.

Dominion Transmission contends that excessive oil production from third-party wells since 1980 has caused reservoir pressure in the area to drop, allowing storage gas to migrate to areas formerly containing oil. As a result, wells operated by third parties in the Fink Oil Field have had a high potential to produce injected storage gas, according to the pipeline.

It seeks to protect its Fink storage operation from both migration of storage gas beyond the storage pool boundaries and third-party drilling encroachment by expanding the active reservoir and adding a protective boundary around the active storage pool, the FERC order said [CP04-49].

The 15 converted wells will be used for withdrawal purposes only to control and recycle storage gas that has migrated in the past and continues to migrate westward into the Fink oil zone, it noted.

“Based on the geological, engineering and storage operation data provided, we find that storage gas has migrated or has the potential to migrate out of the current active storage boundary,” the FERC order noted. Expanding the active storage boundary by an additional 3,163 acres in seven areas “should bring the active storage boundary into conjunction with many of the geophysical boundaries of the Gantz sand [formation].”

And the addition of the “22,375-acre protective boundary around the entire field should help protect the overall integrity of the field by preventing third parties from encroaching on the storage reservoir,” it said.

The Commission gave Dominion Transmission the go-ahead to roll in the estimated $9.2 million cost of the proposed project as part of its storage function cost of service in its next section 4 rate proceeding.

“The minor cost increase to DTI’s customers at the time of DTI’s next general section 4 rate proceeding is reasonable in view of the improved operating reliability and control of the Fink Storage Field that would result from the project,” the order said.

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