Underground salt formations offer an interesting option for natural gas or drilling waste storage. These formations are well-suited to storage, because, once formed, they allow very little gas or oil to escape, unless it is purposely extracted.

​

Once a salt dome or salt bed deposit is deemed suitable for storage, it is necessary to develop a salt cavern within the formation. This is accomplished by “salt cavern leaching”; drilling a well down into the formation, and cycling large amounts of water through the completed well. The water dissolves some of the salt in the deposit, and is cycled back up the well, leaving a large empty space. The walls of salt caverns  have the structural strength of steel, which makes them very resilient against reservoir degradation.

​

Salt cavern storage facilities are found in east-central Alberta, west-central Saskatchewan and north-east of Edmonton, in the Redwater area.

​

Earth Fluids personnel have been involved in drilling salt zones, injection wells and salt caverns in all of these areas, using a variety of fluids, especially formulated to meet the challenges of different salt types, for different clients. 

​

​