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ТNК-ВР applies to develop offshore blocks in Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea section

Oil&Gas Materials 27 March 2009 14:16 (UTC +04:00)

Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, March 27 / Trend , G.Hasanov/

The TNK-BP, the third largest oil company in Russia, applied for development of three promising offshore blocks in the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea, an official Turkmen source said.

Turkmenistan Presidential Office State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources is studying the package with a plan of action and technical documents. The office is engaged in negotiations with more than 60 companies, including BP, Chevron, Total, Itera and others. The negotiations relate to capital-intensive offshore projects. According to local forecasts, Turkmenistan's offshore reserves top 10 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas. Foreign companies are not allowed to develop onshore oil and gas fields, with few exceptions, such as the Chinese CNPC, which is building a gas pipeline to China, he said.

Ashgabat put roughly 30 offshore contract areas on an international tender. The Dragon Oil Ltd (UAE-UK) is directly engaged in production on the shelf. The rest companies, including Maersk Oil, ONGG Mittal Energy Ltd and Burried Hill, Wintershall Holding AG, Maersk Oil, are engaged in exploration.

TNK-BP's management for the first time divulged its interest in the Turkmen market during a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov in June 2007. Later, a BP representative visited Ashgabat. The BP is extensively represented in Azerbaijan. The company is the operator of the project on development of the Shah Deniz gas field.

The TNK-BP was founded in 2003 through the merger of BP's oil and gas assets in Russia with the oil and gas assets of the Alfa, Access/Renova (AAR) consortium. BP and AAR own the TNK-BP on a parity basis. The TNK-BP shareholders also own a 50-percent stake in the Slavneft.

The TNK-BP is a vertically integrated oil company. It includes a number of producing, processing and marketing enterprises in Russia and Ukraine. The TNK-BP is exploring the possibility of working in Kazakhstan and the Middle East - in Iraq, Yemen and Jordan.

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