Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 29 /Trend, E. Ismailov/
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has started drilling the second appraisal well as a part of creation of an underground gas storage facility in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a source in SOCAR told Trend on Tuesday.
Drilling of appraisal wells on the basis of Nehram salt deposit is being carried out at the Tumbul site.
According to the interlocutor, drilling of the first exploration well was previously completed. The depth of this well exceeded 1200 meters, the source said. The design depth of the second well is 1,000 meters.
"Some 170 meters out of the designed 1,000 meters have been drilled so far," the source said.
According to him, the results of the appraisal drilling will be presented after the drilling of three wells at the site.
Previously it was decided to increase the design depth of the first appraisal well from 1,000 to 1,250 meters in order to study salt deposits in more details as part of creation of a new underground gas storage facility in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
Currently, Azerbaijan is carrying out swap deliveries of gas to Iran in order to provide Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with gas. It was decided to create underground gas storage on the salt deposit's base to secure the sustainability of gas supplies to Nakhchivan Autonomus Republic.
The underground gas storage with 200-300 million cubic meters of capacity will be enough for meeting the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic's needs.
