Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 24 / Trend H. Hasanov /
The sixth meeting of the Turkmen-Kazakh intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific and technical and cultural cooperation has been opened in the oil and gas complex at Ashgabat today, the Turkmen Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Wednesday.
The relevant heads and employees engaged in this industry will participate in the work.
'Special attention will be paid to the expansion of business cooperation between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan', the statement said. 'The effectiveness of the conducted work and bilateral obligations will be discussed over meetings lasting two days'.
The two countries are cooperating in a number of large projects in the interests of jointly solving the issues of energy security. This area is one of the strategic areas, given the enormous hydrocarbon reserves and existing huge transit and transport potential.
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are actively cooperating to enable them to enter foreign markets. Kazakhstan wants to deliver its oil in a southerly direction to the Persian Gulf and Turkmenistan wants to sell its gas to the north and in particular, Russia, Ukraine and Europe, as well as to China.
Commissioning the Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kazakhstan - China gas pipeline in December 2009 was a significant event in this area. The pipeline allows on the one hand, provision to the southern regions of Kazakhstan with gas and on the other, to export Turkmen gas to China.
The two neighbouring countries are also engaged in a joint implementation together with Iran on the construction of the Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan railway destined to become an important component of the international North-South transport corridor.