Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran will store over 1.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas at its Sarajeh facility, located in central Qom province, in the current Iranian fiscal year, which began on March 21, said Houshang Mehrdadfar, an official with the National Iranian Gas Company.
Storing 4 million cubic meters of gas at the facility started in winter, Iran's Shana news agency quoted Mehrdadfar as saying on May 2.
It is possible to store up to 10 million cubic meters of gas at the facility, he noted.
The Sarajeh facility holds about 1.24 billion cubic meters of gas, a 35 percent rise year on year.
During winter last year, some 662 million cubic meters of gas were supplied from Sarajeh to the national gas network.
Due to its location, which is near to the capital city of Tehran, as well as the vicinity to the national gas network, Sarajeh is a suitable place for storing natural gas.
Currently, Shoorijeh gas storage facility - located in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan and Sarajeh gas storage facility- located in the central Qom province - are active in Iran.
The construction operation of Iran's third gas storage facility is underway in central Kashan city. Once the facility comes on stream, the country's total storage capacity will increase by 3 billion cubic meters to reach 11 billion.
Iran is now the Middle East's leading country in terms of gas storage capacity.
The country is also among the world's top five countries in this regard.