SOCAR AQS, integrated drilling and oil services management company based in Azerbaijan, opened 40 wells as a manoeuvre to expand the storage capacity of the Tuz Gölü National Gas Storage Facility in Central Anatolia, Turkey. The investment scope of this project approximately reached $103 million where each well need between $2-2.5 million investment and the drilling operation has complete 17 wells out of 40, Director General of SOCAR AQS Ramin Isayev disclosed on May 27.
In addition, the drilling operation is expected to finish by the end of October this year and the current gas storage facility of 600 million cubic meters capacity will be doubled with plans to reach 5.4 billion cubic meters by the year of 2024.
Turkey’s Deputy Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on May 14 that the country is planning to increase its natural gas import share to over 30% for LNG, concurrently decreasing the share of pipeline exports. Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan are counted as the country’s main supplier for LNG but in recents years, LNG imports from the United States, Qatar and Algeria are also rising significantly.
Statistically, Turkey’s total oil imports decreased by 7.2% in March compared by last year’s data, and crude oil imports reached 2.68 million tons in the same month. The highest imports come from Iraq at 1.3 million tons, Russia at approximately 486,000 tons, and Kazakhstan at approximately 306,000 tons.
