Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, October 14/ Trend, H. Hasanov /
Speaking at a meeting of the country's Cabinet of Ministers, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov ordered 'the strengthening of control over the implementation of projects aimed at increasing the volume of natural gas production, its processing and export', a message from the Turkmen government said on Monday.
'"The Turkmen president stressed that priority should be given to the facilities planned to be constructed within the second stage of development of the Galkynysh giant gas field', the message said.
According to the message, Berdimuhamedov gave a number of orders on further strengthening the material-technical base, modernisation and technical re-equipment of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) enterprises.
The largest fields in Turkmenistan are concentrated in Mary province in the country's eastern sector. Total resources of the Galkynysh and Yashlar fields which are closely estimated by local geologists and UK firm GCA to be within 26.2 trillion cubic meters.
Work at Galkynysh has been carried out since 2009 on the basis of signed service contracts. The Turkmengas State Concern ordered the development of a complex of work to companies such as the CNPC Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Company Limited (China), LG International Corp, Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd (South Korea), Petrofac International LLC and Gulf Oil & Gas FZE (UAE).
Within the first phase, the facilities for the production of 30 billion cubic meters of marketable gas per year were installed at the Galkynysh field. During the same period Turkmenistan and China agreed to start negotiations on the financing of the second stage of the development of Galkynysh field.
Turkmenistan is one of the key players in the energy market of the Caspian Sea region. Raw materials are continuously being exported to Russia and Iran. A route to China which is a strategic buyer of this valuable raw material was opened in 2009.