Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Korea has strategic storage capacity of approximately 116 million barrels equivalent to national consumption of sixty days based on previous year\'s statistics, and about eighty percent of total strategic storage utilizes underground facilities. Stored products include crude oil, product oil and LPG, and they are mainly stored in un-lined rock cavern with water curtain system under high pressure and at atmospheric temperature. The core technology of underground storage construction is in excavation of large caverns and ensuring hydro-geological stability of the structure. This technology has been developed for the last thirty years through numbers of projects, and new technology of cryogenic storing of LNG in lined rock cavern is currently under development. It is expected that such underground storage technology will be of practical application in construction and development of strategic storage facilities in East Asia.