A Strategic natural gas reserve is a government funded

natural gas storage Natural gas is a commodity that can be stored for an indefinite period of time in natural gas storage facilities for later consumption. Usage Gas storage is principally used to meet load variations. Gas is injected into storage during periods o ...

facility that holds long term stock piles of

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

in case of an emergency. After the 2021–2023 global energy crisis, there has been several countries in

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

that have signaled a commitment to building national strategic natural gas reserves such as

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

East Asia

East Asia natural gas commodities tracker is the PLATTS index, and reached as high as $70 per million

British thermal unit The British thermal unit (Btu) is a measure of heat, which is a form of energy. It was originally defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. It is also part of the United Stat ...

s in 2022 during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

during the

Second Cold War The terms Second Cold War, Cold War II, or the New Cold War has been used to describe heightened geopolitical tensions in the 21st century, usually between, on one side, the United States and, on the other, either China or Russia—the latter o ...

Taiwan

State owned energy firm CPC Corp holds about 11 days worth of natural gas usage in stockpile and is going to increase it to 14 days.

Japan

is the world's largest importer of LNG and plans to work with the

International Energy Agency The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector. The 31 member countries and 13 associatio ...

to help establish and coordinate a strategic natural gas reserve.

South Korea

is the third largest importer of LNG and is building its 6th LNG strategic natural gas reserve facility. It keeps nine days worth of winter usage in strategic storage along with an undisclosed amount of commercial stockpile.

China

State owned CNOOC completed 10-billion-cubic-metres (bcm) of storage in 2023, and plans to have 55-60 bcm by 2025 or 13% of total gas consumption for one year.

India

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board in India is putting together a plan as of July 2023 to build strategic natural gas reserves in either abandoned gas wells and underground storage. They currently have no national natural gas reserves.

United States

As of 2023 there are no national strategic natural gas reserve facilities in the United States. A 2007 study found that as of May 2004, there was roughly 8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of commercial gas storage capacity in the US, with about 4 Tcf needed to always remain in storage as base gas. Base gas is needed in order to provide enough pressure for gas to be withdrawn on demand. Therefore, total working storage capacity is about 4 Tcf. This is equal to approximately 17% of annual consumption. Most gas storage is in depleted gas or oil fields, with the second largest storage capacity being in aquifers, and the smallest in salt caverns. Depleted gas or oil fields are the cheapest to commission, as they take advantage of existing wells, internal distribution systems, and pipeline connections. They are also widely available.

Europe

The European Commissioner for Energy

Kadri Simson Kadri Simson (née Must, born 22 January 1977) is an Estonian politician, formerly from the Centre Party, who served as the European Commissioner for Energy in the von der Leyen Commission between 2019 and 2024. Early life Simson graduated fr ...

plans to

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

energy transition An energy transition (or energy system transformation) is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainab ...

Europe to

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

instead of a strategic natural gas reserve.

References

{{reflist Energy infrastructure in the United States Energy security Petroleum economics Petroleum in the United States Strategic reserves of the United States United States federal energy legislation