Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.27 /Trend F.Milad/
Once the Shoorijeh gas storage facility comes on stream, some 4.8 billion cubic meters would be added to the country's total gas storage capacity, Natural Gas Storage Company's managing director said on Wednesday.
The project is currently 65 per cent complete, the IRNA News Agency quoted Massoud Samivand as saying.
"The first phase of the project with a 2.4 billion cubic meter capacity will come on stream in the spring," he said.
Iran will establish 40 gas storage facilities in the coming years, IRNA quoted National Iranian Gas Company's managing director Javad Owji as saying on November 19.
"Some 60-70 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas will be stored at the facilities as consumption is expected to rise in the future," he said.
On October 1, Natural Gas Storage Company's managing director Massoud Samivand told the Mehr News Agency that Iran will be able to store 110 mcm of gas per day when it completes several relevant projects.
The first phase of a project designed to store gas underground in the Qom region's Sarajeh area is underway, he added.
Work on the Nasrabad underground storage facility near Kashan and Khorasan Province's Shourijeh facility will also be launched, Samivand said.
Upon completion of five to six projects, Iran's gas storage capacity will grow to 110 mcm making it possible for the country to have a greater share in global gas sales.
Sarajeh, the first natural gas storage project in Iran and the whole Middle East, is to be launched in the near future. The facility will have the capacity to store 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas in its first phase and 3.3 billion cubic meters in the second phase.
More than $200 billion is said to be needed to invest in the implementation of Iran's gas projects.