September 12-14
Iran has formally inaugurated the largest gas storage facility in the Middle East, an initiative intended to guarantee for the first time that there is enough gas for the far northern provinces in the winter to end the periodic horror stories when cold spells have turned deadly as insufficient gas was available to heat homes.
The inaugural ceremony of the Shourijeh facility, located about 25 kilometers southeast of the city of Sarakhs in Khorasan Rezavi province, was held in the presence of Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh on Sunday.
The concept is very simple. Natural gas will be piped daily to Shourijeh from the south. In the cold winter months, that gas will be available to pump into cities all across the north.
Right now, about 7 million cubic meters of gas is being pumped into Shourijeh each day. That will soon rise to a top rate of 10 million cubic meters per day. In the cold months, as much as 20 million cubic meters per day will be withdrawn from the storage site.
From Shourijeh, gas will be pumped to the provinces of Khorasan Rezavi, Khorasan North, Golestan, Mazandaran, Gilan and Ardebil, but not East and West Azerbaijan, the last two frigid northern provinces.
Shourijeh has the capacity of storing 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Officials have said it will help the country reduce its dependency on winter gas imports from Turkmenistan, which has twice shut off the tap in the dead of winter during disputes with Iran.
An announcement said Shourijeh cost 1.1 trillion rials and 18 million euros, or a total of about $60 million.
Iran’s first gas storage facility was launched in the central province of Qom in early January. In November 2012, the then-managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company, Javad Owji, said the Islamic Republic plans to establish 40 gas storage facilities in the coming years.