Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR has already entered the design depth on drilling the first appraisal well within the framework of creating an underground gas storage facility in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, source in the company told Trend.

The drilling of the first exploration well at the base of the Nehram salt field is being conducted on Tumbul site.

Work within the drilling of the appraisal well is still underway, the source said.

Despite the fact that the 1,000-metre depth has been reached, it's early to speak about the completion of the process yet. Firstly, the descent of the technical pipeline should be produced and other work considered within the framework of drilling of the first well should be implemented, the source noted.

The outcome of the work on drilling the first appraisal well will soon be completed according to the source. The acquired outcome during the drilling of the first well, will guide the drilling of subsequent wells.

Currently, Azerbaijan carries out swap delivery of gas to Iran in order to provide NAR with gas.

A decision on creating underground gas storage at the base of the salt field was adopted with the aim of providing the sustainability of gas delivery to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
Gas storage with capacity of 200-300 million cubic meters will be sufficient for providing NAR's needs for gas.

According to the primary data, the depth of salt bedding is 52 metres when the creation of underground gas storage is appropriate considering the 40 metres of thickness.

An additional three to four wells will be drilled in order to identify the volume of gas storage after the completion of drilling the first well.

Currently two underground gas storages operate in Azerbaijan at Kalmaz and Garadagh.