Prospects for underground storage of lubricants in the Arctic

Abstract

Currently, subsoil users in the Far North are faced with serious problems connected with logistics of shipment and storage of high-cube building materials, equipment, lubricants and produced minerals. Lubricants are mostly stored in surface tanks made of steel (or, less often, reinforced concrete). Operation of surface tanks involves some risks governed by evaporation of lubricants in summer period, fire and explosion hazards and loss of sealing of the tanks. In case of damage of steel tanks, lubricants spread over ground surface, and penetrate surface water, soil and air, which has a dramatic environmental impact. Land reclamation and nature recovery take much time (decades) and can be extremely expensive for subsoil users. An alternative to surface storage tanks in the conditions of the Far North can be underground storages arranged in impermeable permafrost rocks. Permafrost rocks represent a cryogenic barrier and eliminate migration of the stored products to the environment. Furthermore, mining industry waste placed in underground storages completely freeze with time and become a part of geological rock mass, which totally eliminates seepage and outlet of waste to ground surface. The underground storages can be mines, boreholes and trenches by type. This article describes the main technological aspects of construction of downhole underground storages which ensure reliable safekeeping of liquid hydrocarbons in frozen rock mass. The economic efficiency of such storages as compared with the surface analogs is briefly proved, the experience of commercial-scale introduction of the downhole storage construction technology is described, and the further routes of the research aimed to enhance efficiency of underground storages in development of remote lands in the permafrost areas are identified. To increase efficiency of this technology, it is proposed to launch R and D work. Finally, the article offers a proposal on construction of underground storages instead of time-worn surface steel tanks in the Far North.