Iran to store gas in SOCAR facilities

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) says it is negotiating with Iran to store the country’s natural gas in its own facilities and re-supply it to its northern provinces during winter.

The media quoted SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev as saying that talks are underway with Iran to pump the country’s natural gas to SOCAR storage facilities.

The gas, Abdullayev emphasized, will be used to supply Iran's northern provinces during winter.

He added that Iran faces serious problems in winters in supplying its northern regions in winter.

To the same effect, the official added, Azerbaijan raised the possibility of storing Iran’s gas in SOCAR facilities and re-supplying the gas to Iran during winter during the visit to Baku in August by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

Iran’s gas may be pumped into SOCAR storage facilities in summer and provided for use to the country’s northern regions in winter, News.Az quoted Abdullayev as saying.

The official further emphasized that the storage capacity of SOCAR facilities has been increased from 800 million cubic meters to 3.5 billion cubic meters.  This, he added, can even increase to as high as 5 billion cubic meters.  However, Abdullayev said that a preliminary check over this is necessary and that SOCAR has requested Iran to provide it with the required supplies to do so.

Iran's Deputy Petroleum Minister for International Affairs Amir-Hossein Zamaniniya said in August that Iran may start pumping natural gas into underground storage facilities in Azerbaijan in the near future.

"This is a crucial question for Iran, and most likely, in the near future, Iranian gas will be pumped to Azerbaijani underground storage facilities,” Zamaniniya told Trend.

“Azerbaijan has two gas storage facilities, including Garadagh and Galmaz, the capacity of which is up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas," he added.

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