Azerbaijan, Baku, July 3 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) plans to start drilling two wells in the Kalmaz underground gas storage of Azerbaijan, a source at SOCAR told Trend. Drilling of new wells is aimed at increasing the storage capacity of the facilities.
Currently, the country has two underground storage facilities at Garadag and Kalmaz.
According to the source, currently one well is being drilled and two more are being prepared to be drilled at the Kalmaz underground gas storage complex. Drilling of wells will be completed before the end of the year. "The drilling of two wells at the Garadagh underground gas storage plant continues," the source said.
Volumes of gas storage in underground storage facilities in Azerbaijan will be brought up to five billion cubic meters by 2014-2015, the source told Trend previously. The process of increasing the power injection will depend on the drilling of new wells and repairing of old ones.
According to the forecasts, the volume of gas in underground storage facilities in Azerbaijan may reach 3.5 billion cubic meters by the end of the injection season compared to about 3.25 billion cubic meters in 2011.