I first read about this underground 'warehouse' in my copy of Looking Back on Lorain County (1978) by Ernie Henes. In an article entitled, "Ready-Made Warehouses," Henes writes, "Nature has been kind to Southern Lorain County by providing just the right underground rock formations for storing tremendous volumes of natural gas needed to heat homes, commercial buildings, and for industrial purposes.
"When Mother Nature formed this earth, she buried layer upon layer of rock underground. Far under Lorain County she placed several layers of sponge-like rock. When combined with decaying organic material, these porous rocks soaked up natural gas produced by natural chemical reactions. The gas was there for man to drill and release.
"Gas became so popular that it took relatively few years before these reservoirs were emptied, at which point they were used for storage. Today, practically all of the gas used in Lorain and adjoining counties is brought in through large pipe lines from rich fields in the south and southwest.
"Wellington's field has 243 wells into which about 22 billion cubic feet of gas are stored The compressor station on West Road pumps the year around. In cold weather, not enough gas can be brought in to meet the demand, and storage gas is used to augment the pumped flow."
I remember reading this story and being somewhat confused as it was hard to visualize. Thus I was happy to see the article and photo below about the Wellington underground storage field. It ran in the Lorain Journal back on Feb. 4, 1955 – 70 years ago today.
TC Energy acquired Columbia Gas Transmission in 2016. Here's the link to its website about the underground storage.
9 comments:
After spending almost 44 years in the oil and gas business here in Denver, this is a fascinating post. I had no idea southern Lorain County had that much gas production at one time and then all that storage space. Thanks for posting.
How interesting. I had no idea. I wonder if Wellington uses the Clinton Sandstone for storage? I know the Canton Gas Storage facility does. If I recall my geology, the Clinton was formed from ancient river and delta deposits which makes them "pockets" of sandstone within less permeable rock. The Clinton's also used for wastewater and CO2 "storage."
If you're interested: https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/ohiodnr.gov/documents/geology/GF30_HanebergDiggs_2015.pdf
There is also a major underground gasoline pipeline that runs right through Wellington all the way to Pittsburgh. It ruptured about ten years ago and many residents had to be evacuated. Here is the article for that...https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2012/01/major_disaster_averted_welling.html
Great article with much fascinating information!
In Birmingham, there's still a few oil wells still operating. Apparently ohio use to be a big oil producer in the early 1900's... before more profitable wells were found in texas.
There's a crap-ton of those old wells still burping and belching in Lorain and Cuyahoga Counties - they were producing from the very shallow Berea Sandstone. I attended a talk on it late last year given by a man who owns a company that completes remediation on them. Very interesting. And Ohio remains a big oil and gas producer. As of 2023, the state ranked 11th in the US. https://www.energyindepth.org/ohio-jumps-to-11th-largest-u-s-oil-producer/
These wells sound cool and all on paper.But before Christmas in Pennsylvania, a lady was searching for her cat and fell in an abandoned coal mine.And naturally it killed her because of the fall.And because it was a deep mine they had to extricate her dead body with a crane as these old abandoned mines and wells are very unstable and dangerous.I wouldn't want to be the person who goes for a walk out in the sticks in southern Lorain Country late at night and get swallowed up by a covered up gas well,never to return again.
I worked in the coal regions of both PA and WV, and you're right, they can be extremely dangerous places, while active or neglected. Abandoned gas and oil wells tend to be more of a 12" pipe in the ground kind of thing. You'd probably break your leg and have the coyotes eat you, so always wear brightly colored clothing when you're out strolling in the woods!
Not to mention all the contamination that occurs from these wells.Underground pollution contaminating our water sources.Pour me a cup.Sounds delicious.
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