Azerbaijan to announce contest for expansion of gasholders

Azerigas Chair Alikhan Malikov said the terms of the tender have been sent to the Cabinet for approval.

"The competition will be held in April. All companies including Gazprom can apply for bidding," he noted.

He said 680m cubic meters of the gas stored in the gasholders were used and there is 550m cubic meters left. He said Azerigas will receive 11.205bn cu m of gas during 2007, of which 1.31bn cubic meters will be injected to the gasholders, 5.72bn cubic meters will be delivered to Azerenergy, 1.3bn cubic meters will be supplied for population, 250 cubic meters to other consumers and the rest to Nakhchivan and Georgia.

There are two gasholders - Garadagh (3.9bn cu m) and Galmas (2.2bn cu m) underground gas holders while buffer volume of gas is never used in order to maintain the pressure balance in the holders (900m cu m in Garadagh and 700m cubic meters in Galmas).

The technical and economic assessment of the expansion of gas-reserving potential has been carried out and a contest will be announced for the project.

The preliminary of cost of Garadagh gas holder expansion project is $160mln, APA reports.
 
Within the scope of the project, compressors and infrastructure will be reconstructed and 12 wells will be drilled for injection of gas to the holders. The gasholder will not be shut down during the implementation of the project.

16 compressors in Garadagh gasholder will be replaced by two modern turbine compressors and old high-pressure pipelines will be changed in order to redouble their capability. 82 out of 109 injection wells in Galmas and 22 out of 42 injection wells in Garadagh are operation.

Experts say reconstruction of the gasholders is related to their strategic importance and Azerbaijan is one of the rare countries having giant gasholders. For instance, Neighboring Iran doesn’t have such big gasholders at all.

Expansion of the capacity of the gasholders is required in order to take gas volumes from Shah Deniz Field.

Russia also wants to store up its natural gas in Azerbaijan's underground gasholders to supply to its southern regions. Head of Russia's Trade Office in Azerbaijan, Yuri Shedrin, said Gazprom offered this proposal to Azerbaijan during a meeting held in December, 2006.

"We can have good cooperation in this sphere, Azerbaijan’s great experience and our potential can complement well," he added.

However, the gasholders can’t store additional gas at their present capacity and Russia’s proposition can be considered after the gasholders are enlarged.