Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, June 16 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan has discovered another gas field for long-term supplies to China, the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the Turkmen President said.
"Successful trials of deep exploration well in the prospective structure Agayri located in Hojambaz etrap [area] of Lebap province [area] were completed by discovering a new gas field (reserves worth 73 billion cubic meters)," the information said.
This organization is a part of the contract area "Bagtyyarlyk" of the right bank of the Amu Darya, where China National Petroleum Corporation - CNPC operates.
This company operates on the basis of Production Sharing Agreement signed in 2007 with the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources.
The deposits of the contract area are one of the primary sources for long-term supply of natural gas to the pipeline from Turkmenistan to China, which was commissioned in December 2009 in accordance with the arrangements.
According to the evaluations conducted by a volumetric method, estimates of total reserves of Agayri is about 73 billion cubic meters of gas.
This assessment allows including this structure in the category of major gas fields. It is another clear indication of the high prospects for hydrocarbon resources of the territory of the right bank of the Amu Darya," a press release said.
According to the information, the first exploratory well No 21 in the structure Agayri was drilled at a depth of more than 4,000 meters.
The area of Agayri was researched using modern seismic methods in close cooperation with Chinese partners within the Production Sharing Agreement on the contract area Bagtyyarlyk.
A large deposit Samandepe was equipped and commissioned in Bagtyyarlyk. The first gas processing plant, designed for cleaning and production of five million cubic meters of marketable gas annually was built.
The second, even larger gas processing plant with capacity of 8 billion cubic meters of gas a year will be built soon at the contractual area "Bagtyyarlyk". Since putting it into operation, gas, extracted from new fields on the right bank of the Amu Darya, will be pumped into a gas pipeline.
About 13 billion cubic meters of gas are planned to be extracted from natural reserves of the contractual area annually. Therefore, besides drilling of new wells in the discovered fields, specialists of the contractor are examining the entire contract area.