Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Feb. 18 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will expand and improve cooperation in areas such as oil and gas, refining, chemical industry and renewable energy.
This is stated in a joint statement signed after the talks between the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who was recently on a visit to Ashgabat.
Noting the importance of cooperation in the economic field, the heads of states expressed their desire to strengthen economic cooperation based on mutual benefit and interests and called for the maximum use of the potential of the two countries.
Companies from the UAE are prominently represented in the Turkmen energy market.
In particular, Dragon Oil has operated in Turkmenistan since 1999 under a production sharing agreement (PSA). Investment in this project, as of the first quarter of 2012, amounted to $2.4 billion. During the period until 2015, the company intends to attract over $1 billion for development of projects.
The main asset of the company with 100 per cent share is concentrated in the eastern sector of the South Caspian Basin, in the Cheleken contract area with a total area of 950 square miles.
Another company, Petrofac, received a major contract to perform services for a total of nearly $4 billion to develop the Galkynysh field in Mary area, the second largest field in the world. Petrofac is conducting construction of a complex for gas purification from sulphur with 10 billion cubic meters per year capacity, as well as ground-based facilities for production of tank gas with an annual capacity of 20 billion cubic meters.
The Mubadala Company, as previously reported, is in the process of negotiations on prospects for cooperation in the Turkmen part of the Caspian Sea. The international tender involves 32 licensed blocks with estimated resources of 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, excluding contracted blocks.