Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, July 13 / Trend H.Hasanov /
The Malaysian state-owned Petronas Charigali petroleum company (operating in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea since 1996), the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the Turkmen President, and the State Concern Turkmengas have signed an agreement for natural gas sales, an official Turkmen source reported.
This agreement coincides with the opening of a gas processing plant with a design capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It was built in the Caspian Sea town of Kiyanly. At the initial stage, the production will reach 5 billion cubic meters of gas.
The new plant will allow the company to begin exporting the associated natural gas from Turkmenistan, on whose resources Europe relies, with an attempt to diversify the sales markets.
One option to deliver Caspian resources is the Trans-Caspian Pipeline between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. This communication may be part of the large-scale Nabucco pipeline project.
As for oil, Petronas began the commercial production and export of raw material in May 2006, by using an oil transport route which passes through Azerbaijan and Iran.
Malaysia's Petronas Charigali is widely represented in Turkmenistan on the Turkmen market.
The company signed the PSA with the Turkmen government in 1996 for the development of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. The contract area includes the fields Diyarbekir, Magtamguli, Ovez, Mashrikov, and Garagol- Denis.