SOCAR has offered Iran to use Azerbaijani gas storages for Iranian gas storage for its further deliveries to the northern provinces of Iran, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists.
Abdullayev explained that in winter Iran has problems with supplying northern provinces with gas.
“For the reason SOCAR is forced to deliver additional gas volume to the northern provinces of Iran as a part of the swap gas deliveries to Iran for the needs of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR). However, our gas possibilities are not unlimited. We have had talks with Iran and offered to pump the volume of gas needed to supply the northern provinces in winter into our gas storages in summer,” Abdullayev added.
At present Azerbaijan delivers 1.3 million cub.m. of gas a day to Iran for the needs of NAR as swap deliveries. NAR does not have a common border with the main territory of Azerbaijan and borders on Iran, Armenia and Turkey. Gas is pumped to Iran via the Hjaigabul-Astara gas pipeline.
Azerbaijan has two underground gas storages- Galmaz and Garadag. Galmaz storage is located 75 km southeast of Baku and it was put into operation in 1955. Garadag storages is located 25 km southeast of Baku and it was launched in 1954. After the upgrade total volume of the gas storages was increased from 3.5 up to 6 billion cub.m. of gas.
