Turkmen president orders environmental protection at oil and gas extraction areas

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has ordered monitoring of petroleum companies and their measures to protect the environment, Trend reports.

The Caspian Sea holds some of the largest reserves of oil and gas in the world. They are strategic resources of the Turkmen fuel and energy complex.

Yagshygeldy Kakayev, Deputy Prime Minister, Director of the State Agency for Management and Exploitation of Hydrocarbon Resources of the Turkmen President, made a report.

Western Geco says that the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea holds 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, which is over half of the oil and about a quarter of the gas reserves of the country.

Turkmen specialists insist that over 80% of hydrocarbons on the shelf are over 3,000 meters deep and located in unstudied areas. There are high chances of discovering new oil and gas fields. New prospects may be found in the Middle and Southern Caspian.

Ashkhabad tendered 32 licensed Caspian blocks. Negotiations are being held with Chevron, ConocoPhilips, Midland Oil & Gas (USA), OMV (Austria), Statoil (Norway), Total (France) and companies of the Middle East and the Gulf.

Companies of the UK, Russia, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, UAE, Canada and China are operating in Turkmenistan. Petronas, Dragon Oil, Burried Hill, RWE, Itera, Zarubezhneft, ENI (purchaser of Burren Energy) and CNPC are extracting resources.