Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.20
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
In the near future, SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) will start drilling of the fifth exploration well within the framework of the planned development of underground gas storage in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR), a source in SOCAR told Trend on Aug. 20.
Azerbaijan currently implements swap gas supplies to Iran in order to supply NAR with gas. An underground gas storage facility set up on the basis of salt deposits was decided to ensure the sustainability of gas supply to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Underground gas storage facility with a storage capacity of 200-300 million cubic meters will be sufficient to meet Nakhchivan's gas needs.
Exploratory drilling is conducted in the "Tumbul" area on the basis of deposits of "Nehram" salt field.
Four exploration wells have been drilled in the area so far, the source says.
"Drilling operations have been temporarily suspended, but in the near future they will be resumed, SOCAR said. "According to the plans drilling of five wells is planned within the framework of evaluation activities at the site in general."
After completion of the evaluative drilling, a research will be carried out and the feasibility of creating a new object of gas storage will be determined.
In case of positive results, the process of creating the repository will take time because of the need to work on leaching of salt deposits and the creation of the necessary infrastructure, such as the installation of gas compressor stations and lying of necessary pipelines.
According to preliminary data, the depth of salt bedding is 52 meters here, while it is considered advisable to create underground gas storage already at a thickness of 40 meters of bedding, the first vice-president of SOCAR Khoshbakht Yusifzade said earlier.
Currently, there are two underground gas storage facilities operating in Azerbaijan - Kalmaz and Garadagh, which allow to store more than 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas.
