Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.23 / Trend F.Milad /
The construction operation of 4 new gas storage facilities will be commenced soon, Massoud Samivand, managing director of Natural Gas Storage Company said on Sunday, the MEHR News Agency reported.
Once the projects come on stream 130 million cubic meters would be added to the country's daily gas storage capacity, Samivand stated.
Based on the global standards, each country should have the gas storage capacity equal to 13 percent of its total production, he explained.
Samivand had said on October 1 that Iran will be able to store 110 mcm of gas per day when it completes several relevant projects.
The managing director of National Iranian Gas Company, Javad Owji, also said on November 19 that Iran will establish 40 gas storage facilities in the coming years.
Upon completion of five to six projects, Iran's gas storage capacity will grow to 110 mcm per day, making it possible for the country to have a greater share in global gas sales.
Iran's Sarajeh gas storage facility came on stream on December 18.
The facility is Iran's first gas storage facility, which is second to none in the Middle East. It is located at the Sarajeh reservoir at Qom, south of Tehran.
Sarajeh gas storage facility is said to have capacity to store 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas in its first phase and 3.3 billion cubic meters in the second phase. The facility's injection capacity is 10 million cubic meters per day.
According to Samivand, once Shoorijeh gas storage facility comes on stream some 4.8 billion cubic meters would be added to the country's total gas storage capacity.
"The project is currently 65 percent complete. The first phase of the project, with 2.4 billion cubic meters capacity, will come on stream in the upcoming spring," he said.
Massoud Samivand had previously said on April 27 that two natural gas storage facilities will become operational in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends March 19, 2013, to store natural gas equal to six phases of the South Pars gas field.
The official added that depleted hydrocarbon or ground water reservoirs as well as salt domes are priorities for building underground gas storage facilities.
He stated that the country's natural gas storage capacity should hit 14 billion cubic meters by the end of the Fifth Economic Development Plan (2015).
Samivand announced that the construction of two other underground gas storage facilities is simultaneously going on in Yortsha region near the city of Varamin, and Shourijeh region in Khorasan Province.
More than $200 billion is said to be needed to invest in the implementation of Iran's gas projects.