Iran to become one of world’s top five countries with biggest gas storage facilities

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:

Iran will inaugurate Shourijah gas storage facility in the next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 21), Iran's Natural Gas Storage Company's Managing Director Masoud Samivand said on March 8, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.

The Shoorijeh gas storage facility, located at the north-eastern province of Khorasan Razavi, has the capacity to store 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Once the facility comes on stream Iran's becomes one of the world's top five countries in terms of gas storage facilities.

The United States of America with 121 billion cubic meters ranks first in the list. Iran currently stands at the 19th place.

Iran will also become the Middle East's biggest owner of gas storage facilities.

The managing director of Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC), Salbali Karimi, said on Feb. 23, that the Shoorijeh gas storage facility is scheduled to come on stream next winter, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.

Iran will store extracted gas from the joint gas fields, especially the giant South Pars field, in the facility.

Samivand said in June that once Shoorijeh gas storage project comes on stream, Iran will not need gas imports from northern neighbors.

"The Shoorijeh gas storage facility can provide sufficient gas to meet the consumption in the northern and eastern provinces of Khorsan Razavi, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Gilan, and Ardebil," he explained.

"The project will come on stream at the cost of two trillion rials (some $163.1 million based on the official rate of USD and $66.6 million based on the free market's price) which is 10 percent less than the anticipated figure," Samivand added.

The Shoorijeh gas storage facility has two phases and its injection capacity is ten million cubic meters per day.

Samivand said on Feb. 21 that based on the global standards, Iran needs to store around 10 to 15 percent of its total consumption which is equal to 15 billion cubic meters.

"It is while the country's gas storage capacity is currently around 1.3 billion cubic meters," he added.

Currently, only Sarajeh gas storage facility is active in Iran.

Iran's dried gas output is about 160 bcm, a little more than domestic consumption level, according to BP's latest yearly report.

Iran exported 7.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 bcm gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.