Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, July 4/ Trend , G.Hasanov/
At the last meeting of the Turkmen Cabinet of Ministers, Vice-Premier Tachberdi Tagyev reported on development of the "draft of licenses for the right to conduct exploration and produce hydrocarbons in the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea", the official Turkmen sources said.
These contracts have been developed in accordance with Turkmenistan's new Law on "Hydrocarbon Resources".
The report focused on the challenges of the fuel and energy complex and the issues related to development of new hydrocarbon fields and prospective oil and gas areas.
Some 32 licensed units have been put up for the international tender. The negotiation process includes U.S. Chevron, ConocoPhilips, Marathon, Midland Oil & Gas, British British Petroleum, German RWE, Austrian OMV, Norwegian Statoil Hydro, French Total, Russia's Itera, Lukoil and several companies from the Far East and the Persian Gulf
Under the estimates of the U.S. Western Geco Geophysical Company, reserves OF the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea make up 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, regardless the already contracted units. The Turkmen sources said it is more than half the resources of oil and about one quarter of the gas in the entire country.
Specialists of the State Concern "Turkmenneft" claim in their reports that more than 80 percent of hydrocarbon reserves in offshore sediments are located in a depth of 3,000 meters, as well as in weakly explored oil and gas zones, so it is possible to discover new significant oil and gas fields. New perspectives are related primarily to two major oil and gas basins - the Middle Caspian and South Caspian.