Tehran, Iran, April 20
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran plans to increase its gas storage capacity by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21.
Iranian oil minister has instructed the related bodies to do their best to achieve the goal, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on April 20.
Deputy Director of National Iranian Gas Company, Abdolhossein Samari said that in previous winter the gas storage facilities proved their efficiency.
"The Sarajeh gas storage facility pumped some 10 million cubic meters of gas to the national gas network in winter. The figure is not significant, but it was really helpful," Samari added.
He went on to note that Shoorijeh gas storage facility will come on stream by the end of year.
"Once Shoorijeh gas storage facility comes on stream, we expect to be able to inject 50 percent more from the gas storage facilities to the national gas network in comparison to previous year," he explained.
The Shoorijeh gas storage facility, located at the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, has the capacity to store 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Iran will store extracted gas from the joint gas fields, especially the giant South Pars field, in the facility.
Iran's Natural Gas Storage Company's Managing Director Masoud Samivand said on March 31 that by inauguration of Shoorijah gas storage facility in near future, the country's capacity to pump gas from its gas storage facilities will be increased by 20 million cubic meters per day, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported.
"The county's capacity to extract gas will also increase by around 30 million cubic meters," he said.
Once the facility comes on stream Iran will become one of the world's top five countries in terms of gas storage facilities.
The U.S. with 121 billion cubic meters ranks first in the list. Iran currently stands at the 19th place.
Iran will also become the Middle East's biggest owner of gas storage facilities.
Samivand said in June that once Shoorijeh gas storage project comes on stream, Iran will become needless of gas imports from northern neighbors.
"The Shoorijeh gas storage facility can provide sufficient gas to meet the consumption in the northern and eastern provinces of Khorsan Razavi, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Gilan, and Ardebil," he explained.
"The project will come on stream at the cost of two trillion rials (some $163.1 million based on the official rate of USD and $66.6 million based on the free market's price) which is 10 percent less than the anticipated figure," Samivand added.
Shoorijeh gas storage facility has two phases and its injection capacity is 10 million cubic meters per day.
Samivand said on Feb. 21 that based on global standards, Iran needs to store around 10 to 15 percent of its total consumption which is equal to 15 billion cubic meters.
"It is while the country's gas storage capacity is currently around 1.3 billion cubic meters," he added.
Currently, only Sarajeh gas storage facility is active in Iran.
According to BP's latest yearly report, Iran's dried gas output is about 160 bcm, a little more than domestic consumption level.
Iran exported 7.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 bcm gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.