Shourijeh natural gas storage facility in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province is due to increase its capacity to 4.5 billion cubic meters from the current 2 bcm, managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company said.
“Storing sufficient volume of natural gas is the National Iranian Gas Company’s strategic plan, which should match the amount of gas injected into the network,” Hassan Montazer-Torbati was also quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry’s official news agency, on Monday.
"However, current natural gas storage in Iran’s Shourijeh and Sarajeh facilities is not sufficient, as gas consumption is increasing in the country."
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 average 450 mcm.
The country is expanding gas supply infrastructure, as it looks to raise daily gas production to 1.2 billion cubic meters by 2021 from the present 880 million cubic meters.
The official said that 10% of the country’s annual consumption should be stored.
“If Iran’s annual consumption stands at 400 billion cubic meters, we should store about 40 bcm of gas per year. This explains the importance of launching new storage facilities,” he said.
Montazer-Torbati added that natural gas storage should take place all over the country and Iran cannot rely on only two facilities, stressing that IGEDC is considering five more reservoirs, which decision will be taken after completing studies on their potentials and capacities.
Underscoring that the company surveys salt, water and gas reservoirs for storing natural gas, the official said one of these reservoirs is Kashan Salt Dome in Isfahan Province, which is undergoing evaluation.
“Sampling from the dome has been completed and after carrying out the tests, the result will be announced and we will start the operational phase.”
Montazer-Torbati noted that the reservoirs of Imam Hussein (PBUH), Bankour, Babaqir and Qezel Tappeh in Kurdestan Province are also being studied for prospective gas storage.
The 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 peak demand hours.
Sarajeh 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.
