Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994                   TAG: 9411040131
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SALTVILLE                                 LENGTH: Short

SALTVILLE CAVERNS TO STORE GAS

An abandoned salt cavern will be used as a natural-gas storage site and new storage caverns will be carved from the salt, which acts as a natural, impenetrable container, a spokesman for a Texas company said this week.

It will be the first operation of its kind in Virginia, said Ed McIntosh, spokesman for Houston-based Tenneco Gas.

Asked if there have been any environmental problems stemming from the storage technique in other states, McIntosh said, ``There have been none that we know of. It is environmentally friendly.''

Tenneco Energy Resources Corp., a unit of Tenneco Gas, and Virginia Gas Co. are developing the project jointly. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Construction is expected to begin in November 1995. The abandoned salt cavern is about 200 feet deep and 150 feet in diameter. It can hold 250 million to 400 million cubic feet of natural gas and will be able to provide 25 million cubic feet of gas daily.

Tenneco plans to carve new caverns from the salt to create 2 billion cubic feet of storage within five years.

- Associated Press