Azerbaijan, Baku, March 29 / Trend /
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) has started the selection of equipment needed for the construction of a new gas compressor station in the city of Astara (300 kilometers south of Baku), the company said today.
Within construction of the new station project task has been already prepared, SOCAR said.
Construction of the new station is necessary to ensure daily exports of Azerbaijani gas to Iran in the amount of five million cubic meters, along with gas transportation to Iran on the basis swap operations for the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.
Currently, in Astara there is a compressor station, built in 2005, with capacity 2.2 million cubic meters per day. Capacity of the new station will be five million cubic meters per day.
Azerbaijan and Iran are connected with the Gazi-Magomed-Astara-Bind-Biand gas pipeline, 1,474.5-kilometers long. Its capacity was 10 billion cubic meters a year, but now it is lower. This route is a branch of the Gazakh-Astara-Iran pipeline commissioned in 1971. Three compressor stations -Gazi-Magomed, Aghdash and Gazakh -were built.
SOCAR and NIGEC signed a short-term contract for gas supplies to Iran in January. Signing of a long-term contract between the sides is expected in autumn of 2010.