Speaking to Shana, Hassan Montazer Torbati outlined the facility's development plan, saying ensuring sufficient natural gas storage in the country was one of the strategies of the National Iranian Gas Company.

The amount of stored gas should correspond to the amount of gas transmitted on the gas distribution network, but now the amount of gas storage in Sarajeh and Shourijeh storage facilities is not sufficient for the country's distribution capacity," he argued.

The official added that based on the facility's development plan, the storage capacity of Shourijeh will more than double from 2 bcm to 4.5 bcm.  

He stated that, normally, at least 10 percent of the country's gas consumption should be stored in storage facilities, for example, when its consumption reaches 400 billion cubic meters a year, at least 40 bcm of gas must be stored.

Torbati added that 5 spots were considered for construction of gas storage facilities across the country besides Sarajeh and Shourijeh which are currently the only gas storage facilities in Iran.