Azerbaijan, Baku, June 6 / Trend E. Ismailov /
An underground gas storage facility with a storage capacity of 200-300 million cubic meters will be sufficient to meet the needs of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan, the vice-president of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Khoshbaht Yusufzadeh told journalists.
According to him, Azerbaijan is currently conducting swap gas supplies to Iran for providing gas to NAR. In order to ensure a steady supply of gas to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, it was decided to build an underground gas storage facility at the base of the salt deposit.
"SOCAR is currently drilling the first appraisal well at the salt mine in the NAR and initial results have shown the economically feasible thickness of the occurrence of salt," Yusufzadeh said.
According to initial reports, the depth of the salt occurrence here is 52 metres, while creation of underground gas storage is considered appropriate already at a thickness of 40 metres of the occurrence.
According to him, another three to four wells will be drilled to determine the volume of the gas storage facility following completion of drilling the first well.