TEHRAN- The managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company has announced that the country’s gas storage capacity will reach 6.5 billion cubic meters (bmc) by the Iranian calendar year 1402 (starts in March 2023).

Bahram Salavati put the country’s current gas storage capacity at 3.25 bcm, and expressed hope that through implementation of different projects the figure will reach 6.5 bcm by the calendar year 1402.

Iran has two major natural gas storage facilities in Sarajeh and Shourijeh, in which every year the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) stores the gas received from gas refineries all over the country to be used in the colder months of the year.

Following the development of the South Pars gas field and the increase in the country’s gas production capacity, construction and development of the country’s natural gas storage facilities has become a top priority.

Reproduction from Sarajeh and Shourijeh storages increased by 33 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2020) compared to the preceding year, according to Ahmad Rajabi, director of technical affairs at the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC).

The mentioned storages supply gas to six northern and northeastern provinces that are far from the southern gas-rich regions, eliminating the need for importing gas from Turkmenistan.

As one of the world’s top gas producers, Iran is planning to expand its underground natural gas storage capacity to ensure that enough natural gas is available during peak demand periods to avoid electricity supply shortfalls in the future.

According to the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC)’s plans, the capacity of the two storage facilities, Sarajeh and Shourijeh, is planned to increase to over seven billion cubic meters in future.

Back in November 2019, NIGC announced that the company had awarded the development project of Shourijeh gas storage facility to an Iranian company based on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract.

MA/MA