Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 30
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has ordered to intensify work to attract foreign investment for the development of the "Galkynysh" gas field, the State Agency "Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary" (TDK) reported May 30.
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, construction of which began in December 2015, originates from this source of raw materials. The head of state instructed to speed up the implementation of the project of construction of this transnational energy bridge.
All these issues were discussed at a meeting with top managers of the oil and gas industry, at which the "Program of development of the oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan for the period up to 2030" was analyzed, and its parameters were adjusted.
"Galkynysh" is the second largest gas field in the world and is already one of the raw sources of Turkmen gas supplies to China. According to independent audit, the reserves of Galkynysh field together with the "Yashlar" and "Garkel" fields total to 27.4 trillion cubic meters of gas.
In July 2017, it was announced that in the near future it is planned to start the third stage of the development of Galkynysh field, which will increase the production capacity by another 33 billion cubic meters of commercial gas per year with the expectation of supplies to South Asia.
To date, production facilities of the first stage, with a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of commercial gas per year, have been commissioned here, and in 2014 the second stage with a similar capacity was launched.
Service work was performed by companies from China, UAE and South Korea. According to British Petroleum (BP), Turkmenistan is the fourth largest natural gas reserve in the world and at this stage has the opportunity to export it to China and Iran with the prospect of increasing supplies. The project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline to Europe via Azerbaijan has not been removed from the agenda as well.