Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Sept. 6 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Turkmenistan has invited Ukrainian companies to take part in a tender for the development of a new gas field, the information and PR department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine said.
"In the near future we will start work on the development of a new gas field where Ukrainian companies can participate on a competitive basis," the information quotes Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Baimyrat Hodzhamuhammedov as saying.
In Kiev, a senior official from Ashgabat was received by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, who noted that Kiev is interested in the resumption of cooperation in the fuel and energy complex.
"In the early 2000s we had direct gas supplies and have participated in the exploration. Then our relationship was more intense. Now we only restore what was lost and I hope that we will rebuild and develop our relationship at a better level," Azarov said, according to official reports from Kiev.
On September 4-6, the Ukrainian capital hosted a meeting of the Turkmen-Ukrainian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation.
Ukraine counts on direct supplies of Turkmen gas which can be delivered through the Central Asia-Centre (CAC) gas pipeline running via Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia and controlled by the Russian Gazprom.
According to Ukrainian media, Kiev at this stage is considering importing about five billion units of Turkmen gas a year. In exchange for this type of fuel, Ashgabat can offer infrastructure projects.
'However, such an arrangement requires Russia's permission to use its pipelines', the information stated.
Moreover, Ukrainian companies are keen to implement important infrastructure projects of national importance in Turkmenistan, such as gas pipelines and in particular the East - West and international Turkmenistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan - India (TAPI) route.
Geological reserves of hydrocarbon resources of Turkmenistan as of October 1, 2011 were estimated at 71.21 billion tons of hydrocarbon fuel. Bulk is located onshore at more than 53 billion tons and offshore at about 18.2 billion tons.
All this data is significantly higher than the previous data. Turkmen geologists as of 2006 equated geological reserves to be around 45.44 billion tons. Adjustment was associated with the discovery in recent years of a large gas field in the east of the country at Galkynysh with total resources estimated by local geologists and the British GCA at 26.2 trillion cubic meters.
According to BP, Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran and Qatar.