The Ahuroa Gas Storage Facility is an underground

natural gas storage Natural gas is a commodity that can be stored for an indefinite period of time in natural gas storage facilities for later consumption. Usage Gas storage is principally used to meet load variations. Gas is injected into storage during periods o ...

facility situated at Ahuroa in the

Taranaki region Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, owned by Flex Gas, a subsidiary of

First Gas First Gas Limited is a natural gas transmission and distribution company in New Zealand. First Gas's network has 2,204 km of high pressure pipelines and 4,800 km of gas distribution pipelines. Through Flex Gas, First Gas owns and operates the Ah ...

. Flex Gas is the trading name of Gas Services New Zealand. The stored gas is used to supply the

Stratford Power Station The Stratford Power Station is a 577 MW power station located east of Stratford, in Taranaki, New Zealand. The original power station on the site was a 200 MW gas turbine power plant that opened in 1976 and closed in 2001. The current power st ...

and other major users of gas when needed during periods of peak demand. The facility can store up to 18 PJ of gas, with injection rates up to 65 terajoules per day and withdrawal rates of up to 65 terajoules per day. Flex Gas plans to expand the facility to 65 TJ per day injection and withdrawal by 2021.

History

The Tariki / Ahuroa field was discovered in 1986. Construction of wellsite facilities began in 1995 and production commenced in 1996. The facility was in turn owned by

Fletcher Challenge Fletcher Challenge was a multinational corporation from New Zealand. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Fletcher Holdings, Challenge Corporation and Tasman Pulp and Paper. It had holdings in construction, forestry, building, and energy, ini ...

, Shell and Swift Energy. In 2008, when the field was largely depleted, it was acquired by

Origin Energy Origin Energy an ASX listed public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a major integrated electricity generator, and electricity and natural gas retailer. It operates Australia’s largest coal-fired power station at Lake Macquarie, Ne ...

as part of the Tariki / Ahuroa / Waihapa / Ngaere assets. Gas injection into storage began in 2008 and the surface facility was constructed by

Contact Energy Contact Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation, electricity generator, a wholesaler of natural gas, and a retailer of electricity retailing, electricity, natural gas, broadband and Liquefied petroleum gas, LPG. It is the second- ...

in 2009 and 2010. The facility was officially opened in 2011 with a development cost of $177m. In 2017, Contact Energy sold the gas storage facility to Gas Services New Zealand.

References

Natural gas storage Natural gas in New Zealand {{NewZealand-struct-stub

History

See also

References