Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR will complete the drilling of two new wells in Garadagh underground gas storage in the near future.

The drilling operations will be carried out as part of the project of capacity expansion of underground gas storage facilities, a source in the company told Trend Agency on December 3.

Currently, two underground gas storages-Kalmaz and Garadagh-are operating in Azerbaijan.

The source noted the depth of the first well is 2,931 meters (the designed depth is 3,350 meters), and the second one, 3,294 meters (the designed depth is 3,300 meters).

“Drilling of the wells will be completed in near future. Currently, preparatory works are underway in two other areas in Garadagh gas storage,” the source added.

Azerbaijan plans to drill 20 new wells in the next few years to increase gas pumping and storing capacities in the underground storages.

SOCAR's underground gas storages are able to store over 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas.

According to results of the current injection season, the volume of gas in underground storage facilities of Azerbaijan exceeded 3.23 billion cubic meters (Garadagh - 1.75 billion cubic meters, Kalmaz - 1.48 billion cubic meters), which amounted to 3.43 billion cubic meters at the end of the previous injection season.

Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.