Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend: At the end of the pumping season the gas volume in the storages of Azerbaijan exceeded 3.43 billion cubic meters, a source from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) that has the storages on its balance told Trend on Nov.6.
There are 2 underground gas storage facilities in Azerbaijan, Kalmaz and Garadagh.
"This year we have reached record levels on volumes of gas pumping which has almost amounted to 3.5 billion cubic meters," the source stressed.
At the end of last pumping season, the volume of gas in underground storages of the country amounted to about 3.3 billion cubic meters, compared to about 3.25 billion cubic meters at the end of previous season. In particular, some 2.11 billion cubic meters of gas were pumped into the storage facilities last year.
According to the source, the gas extraction from the underground storages has started recently. The gas is being extracted only from Kalmaz gas storage yet. "The gas extraction from Garadagh storage has not started yet, but 15.26 million cubic meters of gas has already been extracted from Kalmaz storage," the source stressed.
According to him, of the total gas volume in the country's storages that exceeds 3.41 billion cubic meters, 1.87 billion cubic meters accounts for Garadagh, and about 1.54 billion cubic meters accounts for Kalmaz gas storage facilities.
Over 1.95 billion cubic meters of gas have been pumped into storages since the beginning of the season, about 1.1 billion cubic meters of which accounts for Garadagh, and about 856.3 million cubic meters accounts for Kalmaz gas storage facilities.
At the end of the season, the residual amounts of gas in underground storages of the country exceeded 1.47 billion cubic meters, about 780 million cubic meters in Garadagh storage and 697.03 million cubic meters in Kalmaz storage.
The country's underground storages allow the storage of nearly 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas.