Ankara, October 23 - Neftegaz.RU. SOCAR AQS, an Azerbaijani integrated drilling and well services management company, will dig 40 wells to expand the storage capacity at the Lake Tuz Natural Gas Storage Facility, located in central Anatolia, Daily Sabah reported.
In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency (AA), Director Gen. of SOCAR AQS Ramin Isayev said that by expanding the facility, tens of millions of dollars would be invested specifically for storage expansion at the Lake Tuz facility.
Currently, the facility can store 600 million cu m of natural gas and has another 600 million cu m of capacity under construction with plans to reach 5.4 billion cu m by 2023-24.
Isayev explained that Azerbaijan is exporting its oil and gas across Turkish territory through SOCAR, which is also considered one of the biggest investors in Turkey with facilities located in Turkey's İzmir and Adana regions.
The Azerbaijani giant has so far realized around $14.2 billion out of its planned $19.5 billion investment in Turkey, to be made by 2020. It began investing in Turkey after it acquired the country's leading petrochemical company, Petkim in 2008 for $2 billion.
SOCAR Turkey's investments include Petkim, Turkey's leading petrochemicals manufacturer; the STAR Refinery, which began operations in 2018; (TANAP), which will transport Caspian gas through Turkey and onward to Europe; and Petlim, the largest container port on Turkey's Aegean Sea coast.
SOCAR, together with BP, plans to launch the construction of a new petrochemical plant in Turkey at the end of 2020. The investment cost of the SOCAR-BP joint project is expected to stand around $1.8 billion and the construction is expected to be completed by 2023.
