Official commissioning of Kenai gas storage

The official commissioning of Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska’s new gas storage facility on the south side of the City of Kenai took place on May 31, with representatives from the facility owners — Semco Energy, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., Cook Inlet Region Inc. and First Alaska Capital Partners — attending the commissioning ceremony. The facility is designed to hold up to 11 billion cubic feet of working gas in a depleted reservoir that had been part of the Cannery Loop gas field.

Gas started flowing into the facility on a limited basis on April 1 and the facility is currently injecting 45 million to 50 million cubic feet of gas per day into the reservoir, as the facility works up to a rate of 150 million cubic feet per day.

The storage facility, which is available for third-party use, will enable Southcentral Alaska power and gas utilities to make their own gas storage arrangements to manage the swings in gas demand between summer and winter.

—Alan Bailey