IN STORE

For six years now, Azerbaijan has been completely self-sufficient in natural gas and has stopped importing it from Russia. Moreover, the country is known to export "blue fuel" to Turkey, Georgia and Russia, as well as to supply gas to Iran in swap operations to meet the needs of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic (it does not have a direct border with Azerbaijan and is blockaded as a result of the occupation of 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory by Armenia).

However, no matter how stable or even progressive gas production volumes are in the country, full energy security and export operations require modern underground gas storage facilities. Today, SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) is working to increase the volume of existing storage facilities and build new ones.

Guarding energy security

At present, Azerbaijan has two underground gas storage facilities - Qalmaz and Qaradag, which are on the books of SOCAR and were created on the basis of old hydrocarbon fields. Both reservoirs make it possible to deliver necessary amounts of gas to the distribution network in the autumn-winter period, when its consumption in the country is growing, and are used as a reserve to meet gas export obligations. For example, last autumn one of the wells in the Sah Daniz field was suspended for technical reasons. As a result, the volume of production there declined from 27-28 million cubic metres per day to 23 million cubic metres. However, the decline in production from the field did not affect not only gas supplies in the country, but also export volumes due to the extraction of gas from the republic's underground storage facilities. This case is a clear example of the importance of underground gas storage facilities in the energy security of the country.

The season of gas extraction from underground gas storage facilities in the country starts with bad weather and increased demand for "blue fuel". For example, this year, the season has already ended and work has begun to inject gas into storage facilities. Gas injection begins in April and lasts until November, in the rest of the period, the process is reversed - gas is taken out. At the end of the withdrawal season, residual amounts of gas in the country's underground storage facilities exceeded 1.47 billion cubic metres (Qaradag - about 780, Qalmaz - 697.03 million cubic metres).

At the end of last season's injection, the volume of gas in underground storage facilities in the country amounted to about 3.3 billion cubic metres against the 3.25 billion cubic metres in the previous season. According to the same predictions for 2013, this figure should rise to 3.5 billion cubic metres.

But this is not the limit, and SOCAR regularly carries out work to increase the volume of gas in storage facilities - namely, it repairs existing wells, drills new ones and expands the capacity of compressors. In 2012 alone, according to the Complex Drilling Works Trust of SOCAR, two wells were drilled at the Qaradag storage facility and 5 wells at Qalmaz. Work on the reconstruction of the Qalmaz gas storage facility has been completed. As a result, its capacity increased to 2.7 billion cubic metres, of which 1.3 billion is the active capacity of the gas storage facility. The reconstruction of the Qaradag gas storage facility is still continuing, and as a result, its active volume will be increased to 3 billion cubic metres by 2014.

From salt deposits to gas storage

Speaking about the increasing reserves of underground gas storage facilities in Azerbaijan, we should note plans to build new underground gas storage facilities in the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic, this time on the basis of a salt deposit. In particular, the first exploration well is being drilled at the Nehram field at the Tumbul site. The design depth of the well is about one thousand metres. "If the drilling of the well yields positive results, an underground gas storage facility will be constructed here. To this end, it is planned to drill new wells," the head of the Complex Drilling Works Trust, Isgandar Sirali, said.

The construction of an underground gas storage facility for uninterrupted year-round supplies of natural gas to the NAR population is part of the programme to provide fuel to all regions of the republic and will ensure energy security. After all, today the NAR, as we have already noted, is provided with gas through swap supplies of "blue fuel" from Azerbaijan to Iran. The two countries are linked by the 1,200-mm Qazi-Mahammad-Astara-Bind-Biand pipeline with a length of 1,474.5 km (in the territory of Azerbaijan - 296.5 km). In 2005, a compressor station, consisting of two compressors, was constructed in Astara in order to ensure gas supplies to the NAR. However, to better ensure gas supplies to the NAR, the question of building a second compressor station was raised, which was approved for use by the State Admission Committee of Azerbaijan in 2011.

The construction of a new GCS was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, six compressors were installed, which, together with the existing gas compressor station, made it possible to transport 3.5 million cubic metres of gas daily. In the second stage, the number of compressor units was brought to 10, and thus the capacity of each of the two GCS reached 5 million cubic metres. Currently, 1-1.2 million cubic metres of gas are supplied from Azerbaijan to Iran every day to support the NAR.

In parallel with the development of the Iran direction, Azerbaijan is considering alternative routes of gas supplies to Naxcivan. For this purpose, it is possible that a new gas pipeline from Turkey to Naxcivan - Igdir (Turkey)-Sadarak (NAR) - with a length of 180 km and another storage facility will be built.

Turkey is currently one of the main directions where Azerbaijan exports its gas from Sah Daniz. With the new pipeline, it will be possible to ensure gas supplies from Turkey to Naxcivan.

Thus, the new pipeline, in conjunction with the underground gas storage facility, will allow Azerbaijan to diversify gas supplies and secure the supply of large amounts of gas to the NAR, which in turn will create more opportunities for the development of industrial production in the autonomous republic. All this together will lead to the strengthening of the internal energy security of Azerbaijan and convince everyone that it is a reliable exporter of "blue fuel".