Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 22
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
Malaysian Petronas company has invested about $11 billion in the oil and gas project in Turkmenistan since 1996, Trend reports referring to the information disseminated by Turkmengas State Concern, the organizer of Gas Congress, in Turkmenistan’s Avaza, the national tourist zone at the Caspian Sea.
The company started to produce crude oil at the Diyarbekir field in 2009 and natural gas in 2011 at the Magtymguly field in 2011.
The total area of the Block 1 contract territory is about 1,467 square kilometers. It includes Diyarbekir, Magtymguly, Ovez, Mashrykov and Garagol Deniz fields. Proven reserves reach at least 1 trillion cubic meters of gas, more than 200 million tons of oil and 300 million tons of gas condensate.
Petronas conducted seismic surveys and drilled several dozens of exploration, appraisal and exploitation wells. The company also prepared fields in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea for operations. Production and export of oil began in May 2006. The current oil transportation route passes through Azerbaijan.
The company installed equipment that allows producing gas in a volume of more than 5 billion cubic meters per year and oil in a volume of 35,000-40,000 barrels per day.
The Caspian Gas Pipeline, which is meant to run along the Caspian coast to Russia through Kazakhstan, might bring back the traditionally strong positions of Russia’s Gazprom JSC in the region. The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, meant to run to Europe through Azerbaijan and Turkey, might also count on gas from the Caspian Sea. These projects might also allow Turkmenistan to diversify energy routes.