The rational management of underground space, especially when used for various purposes, requires a comprehensive approach to the subject. The possibility of using the same geological structures (aquifers, hydrocarbon reservoirs, and salt caverns) for the storage of CH4, H2 and CO2 may result in conflicts of interest, especially in Poland. These conflicts are related to the use of the rock mass, spatial planning, nature protection, and social acceptance.
The experience in the field of natural gas storage can be transferred to other gases. The geological and reservoir conditions are crucial when selecting geological structures for gas storage, as storage safety and the absence of undesirable geochemical and microbiological interactions with reservoir fluids and the rock matrix are essential. Economic aspects, which are associated with the storage efficiency, should also be taken into account.
The lack of regulations setting priorities of rock mass development may result in the use of the same geological structures for the storage of various gases. The introduction of appropriate provisions to the legal regulations concerning spatial development will facilitate the process of granting licenses for underground gas storage. The provisions on area based nature protection should take other methods of developing the rock mass than the exploitation of deposits into account. Failure to do so may hinder the establishment of underground storage facilities in protected areas. Knowledge of the technology and ensuring the safety of underground gas storage should translate into growing social acceptance for CO2 and H2storage.

Underground gas storage facilities play an important part in the maintenance of balance between the constantly imported raw material and variable gas demand in the discussed part of Europe. They also allow for more the efficient operation of businesses which exploit this raw material in this part of Europe and operators of power lines.

The following issues will be discussed in the article: types, capacity, location and variability of the filling level of underground gas storage facilities in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia; similarities and differences in the policy of natural gas storage between individual Visegrad Group countries; the influence of these differences on the situation in the gas market; the influence of the planned further reconstruction of the natural gas storage facilities system on the energy security of individual countries which belong to the Visegrad Group.

Concern for UGSF is one of the conditions of expansion of transmission pipelines to the north and south, increase of LNG import within the Visegrad Group, or the creation of a gas hub in Poland – initiatives aimed at, among others, securing the continuity of supplies to domestic users.

However, the current and planned investments indirectly indicate that in the policies of the governments of the Visegrad Group countries, UGSF are supposed to soon play a much smaller role than many researchers would expect. An intensive expansion of UGSF is very unlikely. The scale of the state’s effect on the role of storage facilities in supplying gas to users depends on the level of the state’s control over the companies managing UGSF.