Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 8
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been injecting gas into its underground gas storage facilities during the first eight months of each fiscal year (March-November), a measure to handle gas shortage during the cold season.
The country has two gas storage facilities, Shourijeh, located in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan and Serajeh, located in the central Qom province with a capacity to store 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas. The country plans to increase the capacity to 11.3 in the coming years.
Majid Mosadeghi, an official with Iranian Gas Transmission Company said that gas injection into the two storage facilities will continue till Nov. 20.
He told Shana news agency that over 900 million cubic meters of natural gas will be stored at Iran's Sarajeh facility during the 8-month period, adding that the facility’s storage capacity stands at one billion cubic meters.
Meanwhile storing 2.5 bcm of gas at the Shourijeh facility by Nov. 20 is on the agenda, he noted.
Within one Iranian fiscal year (starting in March), Iran on average has been injecting 2.5 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas into Sarajeh storage facility during the first 8 months, and extracting on average 4.8 mcm/day from the facility during the remaining four months, the official said.
The natural gas stored in Sarajeh facility mainly is used to meet gas demand of Tehran in the cold season, meanwhile Shourijeh supplies gas to north eastern provinces of the country.
Mosadeghi said that on average, Iran injects over 6.7 mcm/d of gas into the Shourijeh facility within the first 8 months of a fiscal year. Further, over 10.6 mcm of gas is extracted from the storage facility during the remaining four months.
Last fiscal year, 726 mcm of gas was injected into Sarajeh facility, meanwhile Shourijeh storage facility received 1.413 bcm in the first eight months of the last fiscal year (March 20-Nov. 20, 2016), he said.
National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) plans to establish five new gas storage facilities with the goal of boosting the country's gas storage capacity.
Currently, the Nasrabad and the Yurtsha gas storage facility projects are underway, and the Qezeltappeh project is also on the agenda.
Iran plans to increase commercial gas production capacity to 1.25 bcm/d by 2021.