Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, July 29 / Trend G. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan invited Austrian companies to explore and extract hydrocarbon resources in Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea upon terms of Production Sharing Agreement, official Turkmen source said.
Proposal on participation in development of projects on service of Turkmen fuel-energy complex was voiced at a meeting of the inter-governmental commission inn Vienna these days.
Representative of trade-industrial chamber participates from Turkmenistan in the forum but federal ministry of economy - from Austrian side.
Concrete discussion of projects will be held in Ashgabat at joint business-forum in 2010.
Austrian oil and gas company, OMV, entering Nabucco consortium shows interest in these projects. Turkmenistan is considered as one of key natural gas suppliers after Azerbaijan for this transnational project on constriction of gas pipeline via Turley, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.
Turkmenistan has delivered 32 licensed blocks I its part of the Caspian Sea. U.S Chevron, ConocoPhilips, Marathon, Midland Oil & Gas, British Petroleum, Norwegian Statoil Hydro, French Total, Russian ITERA, LUKOIL and several companies from Far East and Persian Gulf were included in negotiating process. German RWE has recently signed Production Sharing Agreement.
According to U.S geophysical company Western Geco, reserves of Turkmen sector of the Caspian coast hit 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas without contracted blocks.
Recently Turkmenistan intensified partnership with EU, first, within EU strategy in Central Asia developed with participation of Austria.
National TV channel Altin Asir stresses that sides discussed possible development of mutually complemented economies, as well as measures taken to overcome and reduce impact of world economic crisis in Vienna. Cooperation in energy was stipulated by significant hydrocarbon potential of Turkmenistan and growing demand of European community for energy resources supplies from the Caspian Sea.
Moreover, Turkmenistan and Austria plan to establish joint expert group to regularly exchange exhibitions and tender information. Readiness for diversification of partnership on variety of trends, besides fuel-energy sector, was voiced during talks. It dealt with textile and food industries, telecommunication, communication and construction.
Memorandum on mutual understanding between the Turkmen ministry of economy and development and Austrian federal ministry of economy and labor, as well as the agreement between trade-industrial chamber of Turkmenistan and Austrian federal economic chamber were signed within official visit of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to Vienna in November 2008.
At present, both countries prepare project of the inter-governmental agreement on mutual protection of investments.