Iran starts building new gas reservoir with capable storage of 4 bln cubic meters

A senior Iranian gas industry official says the country has started building an underground natural gas storage facility in salt domes near the central city of Kashan.

The managing director of Natural Gas Storage Company (NGSC), Massoud Samivand said that the studies on the new reservoir located in salt domes of Nasrabad region near Kashan have already been finalized and the implementation of the first phase of the project started, Iran's official IRINN news agency reported on June 19.

The project which includes 3 phases is scheduled to come on stream in the next two years, he added. The official went on to note that the facility will be able to store 3-4 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Samivand explained that about 30 reservoir wells with a depth of 450 meters will be drilled in the Nasrabad region, adding that some 30 to 40 million cubic meters of restored gas in the facility can be extracted per day.

Iran's gas storage capacity currently stands at 8 billion cubic meters, according to officials.

For the time being, only Sarajeh gas storage facility in central province of Qom is active in Iran.

Samivand said on May 20 that the Sarajeh gas storage facility pumped over 662 million cubic meters of gas to the national gas network in winter.

"Currently 375 million cubic meters of gas is being stored in the facility," he said.

"The country saves some $350 million by storing gas in the facility and pumping it to the national gas network in the cold months," Samivand explained.

According to BP's latest yearly report, Iran's dried gas output is about 160 billion cubic meters, a little more than the domestic consumption level. (trend.az)