OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2008. Azerbaijan commenced the works for increasing the level of gasification for the population in the exclave Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR).

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said SOCAR Gas Operations Department has commenced the construction of underground gas storage in the Autonomous Republic.

“The first well has been drilled. Total capacity of the storage will be 300 million cu m of gas,” R.Abdullayev said.

Earlier President Ilham Aliyev said that construction of new electric power stations in NAR has led to reduction of gas supply for the population.

“I charged State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to study technical capacities of country’s underground gas storages with purpose of maintenance of gas supply. A gas storage with capacity of 300 million cu.m. should be built in NAR and filled due to supplies from Iran in summer period,” the president said.

In 2008 SOCAR is to realize main volume of works on increasing overall capacity of two available gas storages up to 3 bn cu.m.