Some emerging countries, such as Brazil, have large remaining natural gas resources but relatively poor infrastructure to monetize it. When most of the natural gas extraction derives from associated gas, this results in high reinjection rates in production fields combined with fuel imports also to deal with an increasingly variable demand. This study test the hypothesis that modeling the natural gas transportation network expansion with Underground gas Storage (UGS) is crucial, as UGS can reduce transportation costs by better fitting natural gas supply and demand. Without UGS chances are that network expansion will be based in oversized pipelines, or pipelines often challenged by peaking demands. Therefore, this study emulated a real natural gas transport network in a thermo-hydraulic model, aiming at diagnosing its bottlenecks mainly caused by demand intermittency, and pointing out infrastructure solutions. Findings indicated the design of UGS associated with new pipelines as a problem-solver for network bottlenecks, under a least-cost approach. This option reduced idleness and lowered gas transmission costs by 60%. In addition, it increased the network operation reliability and created a virtuous cycle, where a better planning reduces the gas tariffs and spur infrastructure expansion by raising the fuel competitiveness.

一些新兴国家，如巴西，拥有大量剩余天然气资源，但基础设施相对较差，无法将其货币化。当大部分天然气开采来自伴生气时，这会导致生产领域的高回注率与燃料进口相结合，以应对日益变化的需求。本研究检验了以下假设，即使用地下储气库 (UGS) 对天然气运输网络扩展进行建模至关重要，因为 UGS 可以通过更好地拟合天然气供需来降低运输成本。如果没有 UGS，网络扩展将基于超大管道，或者管道经常受到峰值需求的挑战。因此，本研究在热工水力模型中模拟了真实的天然气输送网络，旨在诊断其主要由需求间歇性引起的瓶颈，并指出基础设施解决方案。调查结果表明，在最低成本的方法下，与新管道相关的 UGS 设计作为网络瓶颈的问题解决者。该选项减少了闲置，并将气体传输成本降低了 60%。此外，它还提高了网络运行的可靠性，创造了良性循环，更好的规划降低了天然气价格，并通过提高燃料竞争力来刺激基础设施的扩张。