Iran seeks access to Azerbaijan's underground gas depots

Azerbaijan and Iran have agreed to start discussing the possibility of jointly using Azerbaijan's underground gas storage facilities (UGSFs), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) said on Tuesday, Interfax reported.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev met with Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi in Baku, to discuss the prospect for increased communication in various sectors, including energy, and agreed to start discussing the potential for Iran to use Azerbaijan's UGSFs at an "expert level".

Azerbaijan has two UGSFs; Garadagh and Kalmaz. There are plans to build a third facility with a capacity of 200-300 million cubic metres at a salt deposit in Nakhchivan, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, SOCAR's vice president for geology, geophysics and deposit development, previously said.

Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan region receives gas from Iran, but does not share a common border with the main Azerbaijani territory - bordering with Iran, Armenia and Turkey.

Bakudaily.Az