Cavern 20 Is Bigger Than It Was in April
A sonar survey of a salt cavern in Iberville Parish, filed in spring and filed again this week. The two numbers do not match.
Behind the curtain+
One story, one fact: crude is withdrawn from a Strategic Petroleum Reserve cavern by pumping fresh water in beneath it, and the fresh water takes more salt with it every time.
An invented well-log form was the only way to state the fact without pointing at it, so the piece is a maintenance record with two survey numbers in it and no narrator to compare them.
FACILITY Bayou Choctaw, Iberville Parish, LA
CAVERN BC-20
STORED MEDIUM sweet crude
DISPLACEMENT MEDIUM fresh water, raw water intake
AUTHORIZED CAPACITY 10,000,000 bbl
2026-04-02. Drawdown initiated per Secretarial notice. Water injected at cavern floor. Oil displaced upward to terminal. Volume out: 4,116,000 bbl.
2026-04-09. Drawdown complete. Brine to disposal well BC-7.
2026-04-14. Sonar survey. Cavern volume: 10,402,000 bbl. Roof depth unchanged. Wall geometry within tolerance. Salt creep nominal. Fractures self-sealing.
2026-07-30. Refill complete. Volume in: 4,116,000 bbl.
2026-09-16. Sonar survey. Cavern volume: 10,558,000 bbl.
Variance from authorized capacity: +558,000 bbl.
Variance at commissioning, 1977: 0 bbl.
Cycles to date: 11.
Condition: satisfactory. No action required. Next survey: 2027-09.
NOTE: Increase in storage volume is not to be reported as a deficiency.