...

Turkmen president urges monitoring of oil and gas projects in Caspian Sea

Oil&Gas Materials 19 June 2012 11:28 (UTC +04:00)

Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, June 19 / Trend H. Hasanov /

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has ordered the constant monitoring of the activity of oil and gas companies and the fulfilment of their requirements to protect the environment, the Turkmen government said today.

The president stressed that the development of the rich hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian Sea, included in the world register of the largest oil and gas reserves, is the strategic direction for developing the Turkmen fuel and energy complex.

"Big volumes of black gold will be extracted on the sea shelf and in the coastal zone in the near future," the president said.

Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Director of the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the Turkmen President Yagshygeldy Kakaev made a report.

According to the U.S Western Geco Geophysical Company, reserves in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian shelf hit 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, excluding already contracted blocks.

Turkmen sources believe that more than a half of these resources fall to "black gold" and about one-quarter fall to blue fuel.

Turkmen specialists have noted that more than 80 per cent of the hydrocarbon reserves are located in sediment at a depth of 3000 metres, as well as in poorly studied oil and gas areas. Thus, there is still a high probability of discovering significant new oil and gas fields.

New perspectives are associated, primarily, with two major oil and gas basins - the Middle Caspian and South Caspian. Geco experts have processed more than 16,000 line kilometres of seismic profiles.

Foreign participation is of great importance in developing the Caspian Sea's reserves. Ashgabat put up 32 licensed Caspian blocks for international tender. Negotiations are underway with U.S. Chevron, ConocoPhilips, Midland Oil and Gas, Austrian OMV, Norwegian Statoil, French Total and several companies from the Far East and the Persian Gulf.

The Turkmen side considers it a priority to sign the production sharing agreements (PSA) in this area by holding direct negotiations on the development of the Caspian Sea.

The companies from Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, UAE, Canada and China operate in Turkmenistan on the basis of PSA contracts.

Petronas, Dragon Oil, Burried Hill, RWE, "Itera", "Zarubezhneft" have been involved in the development of the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea. ENI (which took up Burren Energy's shares), CNPC operate onshore.

Latest

Latest