Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Some 22 production wells have been drilled at Turkmenistan's giant Galkynysh field, Azerbaijan's Trend news agency reported August 7 with reference to the Turkmen Oil and Gas and Mineral Resources Ministry.

Galkynysh is considered as the second largest deposit in the world, with reserves of 26.2 trillion cubic meters.

Most of the drilled wells were completed with testing and have yielded a significant inflow of natural gas.

All the drilled wells will be tested by the end of the year, and a major amount of gas will be delivered to preliminary gas refining facilities and then to the gas purification plants from the underground reserves. However, there are some wells at the field which have yet to reach the five-kilometer thickness of the soil, the report said.

It also said that the drilling has to be carried out in high temperatures and under abnormally high pressure. In particular, the rig No. 200 in the territory of the Galkynysh field was inaccessible due to high dunes surrounding it.

Previously, a number of exploration wells confirmed the availability of production reserves of hydrocarbons.

According to the conclusion of geologists who have studied the materials of seismic exploration, the dimensions of the gas-bearing reservoir on the new field have amounted to more than 600 meters. No known gas-bearing structure has such features in Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan is one of the key players in the energy market in the resource-rich Caspian region. It produces about 70-80 billion cubic meters of gas a year. Each year it exports raw materials to Russia, China and Iran. The Central Asian state has the world's fourth largest natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran and Qatar. In accordance with the program for oil and gas development, it is planned to increase the country's annual natural gas production to 250 billion cubic meters by 2030, mostly for export purposes.

The largest gas resources in the country are concentrated in the Mary region in eastern Turkmenistan, including Galkynysh gas field.

According to Turkmengeologiya State Concern, the country has 38 oil and 82 gas condensate fields and 153 gas fields, including 142 onshore fields and 11 fields on the sea shelf.