Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkmenistan’s state concern Turkmenneft is actively engaged in developing the North Goturdepe field located in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea.

Currently, Turkmenneft by using powerful drilling rigs, purchased in China, seeks to increase the depth of drilling in this area up to 7,150 meters. In Turkmenistan, it will be the first project of this magnitude depth, Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

During the first year, a new producing formation was discovered at a depth of 4,000 meters, the newspaper said, adding that “further drilled wells also yielded good results.”

The project on development of this field has already been worked out. In order to attract foreign investments by compensating for the money spent with a part of the volume of the produced oil, it is planned to create a joint venture, where the Turkmen Oil State Concern will carry out 90 percent of the work and a potential foreign investor will render maintenance services.

The development of this area at the first phase will require about $600 million. The investment program envisages the development of 15,000 square meters of the Demirgazyk Goturdepe field located on the Caspian Sea shelf.

This work corresponds to the national program for development of Turkmenistan's oil and gas complex for the period till 2030. The resources of the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea are estimated at 12 billion tons of oil and 6.5 trillion cubic meters of gas.

Petronas, Dragon Oil, Buried Hill, RWE Dea AG, Itera and Eni companies are involved in the exploration of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea.

The total volume of investments made by the contractors operating in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea was estimated at over $3.5 billion in 2015, compared to over $3 billion in 2014.

About 200 oil and gas fields were opened in Turkmenistan. Potential hydrocarbon resources of the country are estimated at 71.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, 53 billion tons of which account for onshore and 18.2 billion tons – for offshore areas.

The world’s second biggest gas field, Galkynysh, is located in the eastern part of Turkmenistan. According to the audit held by the UK’s Gaffney, Cline & Associates, reserves of the Galkynysh, together with reserves of the Yashlar field, are estimated at 26.2 trillion cubic meters of gas and reaches 27.4 trillion cubic meters – together with reserves of the reopened Garakel field.

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