Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 2
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend
Turkmenistan’s potential hydrocarbon resources have reached 71 billion tons of oil equivalent, of which 53 billion tons account for onshore fields, 18 billion tons – offshore fields, Myrat Archayev, acting head of the Turkmengas state concern, said.
Archayev made the remarks at the 22nd International Conference ‘Oil & Gas Turkmenistan - OGT 2017’ in Ashgabat Nov. 2.
Turkmenistan's total natural gas reserves are estimated at 50 trillion cubic meters. According to the independent experts, Turkmenistan ranks fourth in terms of proven natural gas reserves in the world.
"Taking into account Turkmenistan’s geographical location and abundant natural gas reserves, the diversification of the transport infrastructure is the country’s strategic priority for ensuring energy security," Archayev said.
Archayev also stressed that the natural gas supply through the pipeline is the most cost-effective and relatively safe way of supplying gas from the producer to the consumer.
Taking into account that Turkmenistan’s proven gas reserves have reached about 10 percent of the world's gas reserves and the current level of gas production has reached only 2 percent of the world's gas production level, Turkmenistan strives to intensify work on the construction of new export gas pipelines.
The most active project which is currently being implemented is the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.
"We understand that the implementation of this project is not an easy task,” he said. “This project is aimed not only at meeting the rapidly growing energy needs of Asian countries, but also should further strengthen peace and ensure stability in this region."
Turkmenistan started construction of its section of TAPI in December 2015.