Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 18 / Trend E.Ismaylov/
SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) intensifies its efforts in the creation of a new underground gas storage in Azerbaijan, namely in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR), after completion of drilling of the first appraisal well, the source in SOCAR told Trend on Tuesday.
According to him, currently the well depth is slightly more than 1,000 meters, and SOCAR specialists conduct technical work at the well.
"There is not so much work left. After completion of the technical measures, drilling of the well will continue to a design depth of 1,250 meters. It is hard to tell something about the time of creating the gas storage, and after completing drilling of the first well, work here will continue actively," the source stressed.
Earlier, for more detailed study of the salt deposits in the framework of creation of a new underground gas storage in the NAR, it was decided to increase the design depth of the first appraisal well from 1,000 meters to 1,250 meters.
Currently, Azerbaijan carries out swap delivery of gas to Iran in order to provide NAR with gas. A decision on creating underground gas storage at the base of the salt field was adopted with the aim of providing the sustainability of gas delivery to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
Gas storage with capacity of 200-300 million cubic meters will be sufficient for providing NAR's needs for gas.
As the first vice-president of SOCAR Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh told earlier, according to the primary data, the depth of salt bedding is 52 metres when the creation of underground gas storage is appropriate considering the 40 metres of thickness.
An additional three to four wells will be drilled in order to identify the volume of gas storage after the completion of drilling the first well.
Currently two underground gas storages operate in Azerbaijan at Kalmaz and Garadagh.