Innovative Technologies for Construction of Horizontal and Double-Deck Underground Tanks in Rock Salt

Innovative technologies of building underground shell-reservoirs in rock salt created by underground dissolution at the Volgograd underground gas storage (UGS) are analysed. The analysis of practical significance of scientific research on construction of tunnel (horizontal) underground shell-reservoirs built by the technology with the use of vertical-horizontal and vertical wells, as well as vertical double-deck shell-reservoirs built by underground dissolution of rock salt through one well developed for the first time in the world at Rossoshinskaya salt deposit are carried out. During the research it is revealed and confirmed the worldwide tendency to increase the number of UGS in the structures of rock salt, which can provide high rates of gas injection and pumping. Introduction of innovative technologies enables the most rational use of available mining and geological conditions—construction of horizontal reservoirs in formations of limited thickness and the most expedient use of salt structures, the thickness of which can reach hundreds of meters for the construction of double-deck tanks, while increasing the rate of maximum daily productivity of underground gas storage. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.