Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR) considers irrelevant the construction of underground gas storage in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) in the near future, Vagif Aliyev, head of the Investment Department of SOCAR said in an interview with ANS TV channel.
"Despite the fact that Azerbaijan's demand for gas is growing, its consumption in the NAR is at an average of 300 million cubic meters a year, so there is no need to build storage facilities there", Aliyev said.
"The country has two underground storages based on the old gas fields - Garadagh and Kalmaz. They are constantly being upgraded, new wells are drilled there, and gas compressor stations have already been installed", Aliyev said. "Currently, their capacity is up to 4.5 billion cubic meters, accounting for 30-35 percent of domestic consumption of gas in Azerbaijan. It's sufficient to cover the gas demand."
SOCAR continues to explore and study the possibilities of gas pumping into salt deposits of NAR, Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan has two underground gas storages facilities, Kalmaz and Garadagh, which are on the balance of SOCAR.
The country's underground storages allow the pumping of over 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas.
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