Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.17
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) is preparing to start drilling a new well in the Garadagh underground gas storage within the framework of expansion of capacity of underground storage facilities, a source in SOCAR said Sept.16.
"The drilling of one well on Garadagh gas storage facility has recently started, and now the preparation for the drilling of another one is underway. Currently, work on preparation of the drilling equipment is being implemented, and drilling operations will begin within ten days. The planned depth in both cases is 3350-3400 meters," the source said.
Also, drilling on Kalmaz underground gas storage has been completed, and preparation for its development is underway, according to the source.
It is planned to drill more than 20 new wells during several years in order to increase the volume of injection and storage of gas in the underground gas storage facilities in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has two underground gas storage facilities, Kalmaz and Garadagh.
By the end of last season of gas injection the volumes of gas in underground gas storage facilities in Azerbaijan exceeded 3.43 billion cubic meters, compared to about 3.3 billion cubic meters in accordance with the results of the previous season of gas injection.
Azerbaijan's underground gas storage facilities are capable of storing over 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas.