Last week in London experts from leading international energy corporations discussed investment opportunities in the oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan. Representatives of foreign business circles noted the extraordinary potential of the Turkmen market, which is caused by the great economic potential, dynamic pace of development of Turkmenistan and the policy of "open doors" pursued by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
Turkmenistan invites investors to develop new promising blocks in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea, as well as to participate in the implementation major offshore projects. The new opportunities of Turkmenistan were considered on October 1-2 in London during the two-day forum titled 'The oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan – opportunities for investment'. The participants discussed projects of mutually beneficial partnership in the oil and gas sector. The head of the state agency for management of hydrocarbon resources under the Turkmen president, Yagshigeldy Kakayev, told potential investors, including Malaysia's Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd., the British-Arab joint venture Dragon OilPlc., China's CNPC, Italian ENI S .PA., Austrian MitroInternational Limited, German RWE and others, about the new state investment policy, the Turkmen government's plans to cooperate with foreign investors and attract new partners to the promising Turkmen market. This is stated in the message of the Ministry of Petroleum and Industry and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan. In Turkmenistan, many well-known foreign companies from around the world are working on the basis of production-sharing contracts. "The activities of companies such as Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd., Dragon Oil Plc., CNPC and others clearly demonstrates the huge interest of the international oil business in investing capital and expanding cooperation with Turkmenistan," Kakayev noted.
The general manager of Dragon OilPlc, Faisal Rabee Al Awadhi, in his turn, noted that the forum has provided new opportunities for the cooperation of representatives of business circles working in the oil and gas sector with Turkmenistan. "Judging by the huge number of participants we can confidently speak about a growing interest of international companies in cooperation with Turkmenistan in the sphere of development of hydrocarbon resources in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. Our company has operated in Turkmenistan since 1999. We have achieved enormous success in this country, annually increasing oil production by 20-21%. We have done a great job to achieve this success. When we started, many did not believe that we could achieve such good results. Today, we are proud of our success in Turkmenistan," Al Awadhi said.
The President of the ITERA International Group of Companies, Igor Makarov, reminded: "ITERA has been working in Turkmenistan for 25 years. Despite the ongoing crisis in the world, we are building bold long-term multi-year plans for the development of fields in the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea." The forum demonstrated Turkmenistan's high potential – the country's hydrocarbon resources amount to 71.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, 18.2 billion tons of which are located on licensed offshore blocks in the country's sector of the Caspian Sea. According to the Turkmen authorities, foreign investment in oil and gas projects in the framework of the PSA was more than $3 billion in 2014. According to preliminary estimates, this figure will exceed $3.5 billion in 2015.
The major hydrocarbon transportation projects were also discussed during the event. This topic is particularly relevant in light of the implemented strategy to diversify energy export routes to world markets. In particular, in light of the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, as well as the transportation of Turkmen natural gas across the Caspian Sea to the European market.
"Such conferences are held regularly, in fact the State Agency For Hydrocarbons was created in London for this purpose during Turkmenbashi's reign (the first president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurad Niyazov). This is not surprising, since there are giant oil and gas reserves yet to be extracted from the ultra-deep wells. This requires special technical equipment, which only a western civilization may have, highly trained specialists and, of course, significant financial investments are needed. Turkmenistan is a rich country, but the country would have to spend more than 5 billion US dollars annually for the constant maintenance of exploration, drilling and service of the fields and pipelines, and Turkmenistan doesn't have that kind of money yet," a senior scientist of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Shokhrat Kadyrov, told Vestnik Kavkaza.
According to him, the list of Western companies which want to explore the Turkmen depths is extensive, but the economy in Turkmenistan, which borders troubled countries for world politics, based on political competition. "Therefore, Therefore, it is not profitable for the Turkmen leadership to jeopardize the reorientation of the existing balance of forces," the expert believes.
As for TAPI, the unstable situation in Afghanistan hinders its implementation. The Taliban movement, which has already taken full control of northern Afghanistan, is jealous of the US companies' participation and, in particular, the Chevron corporation, in the construction of the pipeline. This is perhaps the reason for the reluctance of Berdimuhamedov to grant Chevron the right to independent development of deposits in order to be sure that Turkmenistan has the right quantity of gas. At the same time, China has such a right to develop the oil fields in Turkmenistan. The long-standing partner of Turkmenistan, the ITERA company, which is developing the 21st block in the Caspian Sea, also has the right to develop the Turkmen fields," Kadyrov stressed. According to him, it is clear that this is due to the fact that there are Turkmen people in the ITERA leadership: Igor Makarov is a former associate of Turkmenbashi, Valery Otchertsov is a former Vice Premier of the Turkmen government, there are also children of the irreplaceable assistant of Turkmen president, the chief ideologist of Turkmenbashi's government, Victor Khramov, in the leadership.
