page_title: Natural gas storage
section_title: Gasholders
hierarchical_section_title: Natural gas storage / Types / Other / Gasholders
caption_attribution_description: English: Gasometer in West Ham, East London
context_page_description: Natural gas is a commodity that can be stored for an indefinite period of time in natural gas storage facilities for later consumption.
context_section_description: Gas can be stored above ground in a gasholder (or gasometer), largely for balancing, not long-term storage, and this has been done since Victorian times.  These store gas at district pressure, meaning that they can provide extra gas very quickly at peak times.  Gasholders are perhaps most used in the United Kingdom and Germany.  
  There are two kinds of gasholder — column-guided, which are guided up by a large frame that is always visible, regardless of the position of the holder; and spiral-guided, which have no frame and are guided up by concentric runners in the previous lift.
  Perhaps the most famous British gasholder is the large column-guided "Oval gasholders" that overlooks The Oval cricket ground in London.  Gasholders were built in the United Kingdom from early Victorian times; many, such as Kings Cross in London and St. Marks Street in Kingston upon Hull are so old that they are entirely riveted, as their construction predates the use of welding in construction.  The last to be built in the UK was in 1983.
caption: An older column-guided gasholder in West Ham, London
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