Turkmenistan, Ashgabad, April 16/Trend, H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan's total earnings from sale of natural gas, liquid gas, petroleum products and polypropylene increased by 2.5 times in the first quarter of the year to more than $1.7 billion, the Press Service of the Government of Turkmenistan reported on Friday.
"A considerable growth of earnings contributes to a rise of production and sale of oil and gas, most of which is exported", the report reads.
Over the period, the production of natural gas and bypass gas rose by 41.3 percent against the respective period of last year. A particular growth - 89.7 percent - is observed in natural gas export.
The export reportedly grew primarily due to an increase of natural gas export from Turkmenistan to China and Iran, which have increased considerably energy import from Turkmenistan since the beginning of the year, according to the terms of bilateral contracts.
Currently, Turkmenistan exports its gas to China, Iran and Russia.
Positive pace of Turkmen oil & gas industry's growth has been achieved at all stages, including drilling works, production and transportation of hydrocarbons and their refining, and production of petrochemicals.
Particularly, the pace of growth of oil and gas condensate production in the first quarter of this year was 6.5 percent compared to the 2010 first quarter.
The positive pace of growth of oil and gas production is due to the efficient use of the operating wells and drilling new ones. As for new wells drilling, the 2011 first quarter plan was exceeded by 4.2 percent.
The pace of growth of production of principal petroleum products was high in the first quarter of the year. Particularly, the output of gasoline, diesel fuel and lubricants was up 6.2 percent, 9.3 percent, and 38.7 percent, respectively, from the first quarter of last year. The production of liquid gas in the 2011 first quarter exceeded the plan by 17.2 percent.