Boosting Gas Storage Capacity on Agenda

Concurrent with the gradual rise in the country's natural gas consumption, Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company has started a new round of surveys to increase the number of natural gas storage facilities, the managing director of the company said.

“Natural gas is normally stored in Sarajeh and Shourijeh facilities in Qom and Khorasan provinces, yet plans are underway to add five more storage units to secure gas supply stability, especially during cold season,” Hassan Montazer-Torbati was also quoted as saying by Shana on Saturday.

According to the official, IGEDC is carrying out technical research on five new areas, one of which is Kashan salt dome in Isfahan Province.

Pointing to the country's capability in storing more gas, Montazer-Torbati noted that many oil reserves scattered all over the country are not suitable to store gas and this explains why doing research on other reserves whose geological formations are made up of salt and water are also on IGEDC's agenda.

Bringing into service new gas reservoirs is a major policy of the Oil Ministry with the aim of increasing storage capacity.

 “Approximately four to five billion cubic meters of gas can be stored in Sarajeh and Shourijeh facilities,” he said, adding that the more gas is consumed, the higher levels of the strategic commodity must be stored.

The official added that 10% of the country's annual consumption should be stored in facilities and as Iranians are burning more gas, it is necessary to store more fuel in new storage units.

According to Oil Ministry's data, close to 550 million cubic meters per day of gas are currently extracted from the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf. The country's daily consumption is estimated to stand at 450 mcm on average.

Shourijeh facility off Sarakhs city, near Mashhad, is one of the country's main gas storage points, which helps boost gas supplies in the northern and northeastern provinces during periods of peak demand. Having a total capacity of 4.8 billion cubic meters, the facility places Iran as the leader in the region in terms of gas storage and in fifth position in the world.

Sarajeh, the first natural gas storage facility in Iran and the Middle East, was officially inaugurated last January near Qom, 124 km south of Tehran. It has the capacity to store 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas in the first phase and 3.3 billion cubic meters in the second.

  Gas Grid Extension

According to the official, projects are underway to extend the country's gas network in the next five years.

"Close to 36,000 kilometers of high-pressure gas pipes are up and running in different parts of the country and plans call for extending it to 45,000 km by 2026," he said, noting that plans have been devised to lay 1,200 kilometers of pipelines, in addition to building 10 compressor stations per annum.

Pointing to the number of compressor stations, Montazer-Torbati noted that IGEDC has already set up 79 stations and plans are in progress to increase them to as many as 130 stations. The country is expanding gas supply infrastructure, as it intends to raise daily gas production to 1.2 billion cubic meters by 2021 from the present 880 million cubic meters.