Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 3 /Trend E. Ismailov/
State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) completes the three-dimensional seismic explorations as part of creation of an underground gas storage facility at a salt deposit base in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a report released by Azneft Production Association (PA) of SOCAR said on Thursday.
Drilling of the first exploration well at Nehram salt deposit base is being conducted at Tumbul site.
"Three-dimensional seismic explorations for specifying the site's geological structure are being completed along with the drilling of exploration wells here," the report said.
The depth of the first exploration well at the site, envisaged for the gas storage is 1156 meters, and the primary data say that the results are promising, the report said.
At present, Azerbaijan is carrying out swap gas supplies to Iran in order to provide Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with gas.
It was decided to create an underground gas storage facility at the base of a deposit of salt in order to ensure the sustainability of gas supply to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
An underground gas storage facility with a storage capacity of 200-300 million cubic meters will be sufficient to meet Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic's needs in gas.
Earlier SOCAR First Vice-President Khoshbakht Yusifzade said that, according to initial reports the depth of the salt here is 52 meters, while 40 meters thickness of bedding is appropriate for the creation of underground gas storage.
After the completion of drilling of the first well, another three to four wells will be drilled in order to define the volumes of the gas storage.
Currently two underground gas storage facilities - Kalmaz and Garadagh are operating in Azerbaijan.