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By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkmenistan, enjoying vast of hydrocarbon resources, has prepared about 300 prospective oil and gas structures for deep drilling.

This was stated by Shahim Abdrakhmanov, chairman of the state corporation Turkmengeology, at the international conference entitled "Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan - 2017".

Energy rich nation of Turkmenistan has opened about two hundred of oil and gas fields so far. The main prospects are related to the Neogene, Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits.

In the near future, it is planned to study the prospects of the oil and gas content of the pre-Jurassic deposits in the central and northern regions of Turkmenistan.

More active search and exploration of deep-lying highly promising deposits of the Pliocene and Miocene complexes in the areas of southwestern Turkmenistan, which have not yet been studied by drilling, are being carried out. At great depths, it is often necessary to drill exploratory wells in difficult mining and geological conditions.

Solving problems on the opening and developing deep-lying productive horizons is unthinkable without the widespread introduction of modern advances in science and technology, especially since new deposits are often confined to complex deposits.

"This opens great opportunities for investment and mutually beneficial cooperation with foreign companies that have modern and new technology technologies in this area," Abdrakhmanov said.

To date, 3D seismic work has been successfully carried out within the territories of south-eastern and south-western Turkmenistan. This work allowed preparing new, deep-lying, promising structures with large forecast resources and oil and gas reserves, as well as developing a system of exploration and prospecting methods aimed at finding previously unidentified prospects for oil and gas structures.

Similar works are successfully underway in the central regions of the country. The 3D seismic surveys, which will allow evaluating further prospects of the oil and gas content of the Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits, have been launched in the Central Karakum.

The Turkmengeology corporation introduces new developments in the field of seismic exploration and equipment, as well as deep hole drilling technology. Based on the contract concluded with the company "South-Neftegaz" (Singapore), 2D and 3D field seismic operations continue to be carried out in the west of Turkmenistan, within the areas of Goturdepe, Barsagelmez and Darje.

"The works are being carried out both on land and in the shallow part of the Caspian Sea. Soon, South-Neftegaz plans to submit a preliminary report on the results of work on the Northern Goturdepe square," according to the message.

After the UK’s Gaffney, Cline & Associates carried out an independent appraisal of reserves and resources of natural gas at the Galkynysh field, Turkmenistan ranked 4th in the world in terms of proven natural gas reserves. As for the world’s second biggest gas field, Galkynysh, located in the eastern part of Turkmenistan, it is stated that this filed is unique for its geological conditions.

The recently revised data shows that the reserves of Galkynysh and the nearby fields are estimated at 27.4 trillion cubic meters. Of them, 21.2 trillion cubic meters of gas account for Galkynysh, 5 trillion cubic meters account for Yashlar and 1.2 trillion cubic meters account for the nearby Garakel field.

Potential hydrocarbon resources of the country amount to 71.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, of which 53 billion falls on the land, and 18.2 billion tons - on marine areas.

Turkmenistan has great opportunities for future which lie in exploration and development of oil and natural gas fields, especially Galkynysh, Osman, Minara, Tagtabazar-I, offshore blocks, and the Central Karakum group of fields and construction of gas treatment and processing units at the above mentioned fields.

Currently, Turkmenistan exports gas to Iran and China. The route of the transnational Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, also known as Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is under construction.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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