|
|
 |
Turkmenistan Grants China Gas License
Turkmenistan has begun to develop its first new natural gas deposit since Soviet times, including new transport infrastructure. The Chinese national oil company CNPC has received a license for exploration and production in Amu Darya Region, where 17 billion cu. m. of gas will be produced. Another 13 billion cu. m. will come from old deposits in Mary Region, where gas is produced for Gazprom as well. Gazprom does not expect that it will prevent Turkmenistan from delivering gas contracted to Russia.
Information appeared on the Turkmen presidential website yesterday that Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov had granted CNPC a license for the exploration and production of gas in the Bagtyyarlyk area in Lebap Region. “Turkmenistan is granting a foreign country the right to produce gas on the mainland for the first time,” the president is quoted as saying at the ceremony. “Hydrocarbon reserves on the territory under agreement consist of 1.3 trillion cu. m. of gas.”
A former high-placed Turkmen official noted that, although the total anticipated gas reserves in Turkmenistan are 15.3 trillion cu. m., the country will be unable to produce the 55 billion cu. m. it has contracted to Russia for and an additional 30 billion cu. m. for China. The former official predicted that Russia's interests would suffer, possibly endangering the construction of the Prikaspiisky Pipeline.
Deputy head of the Gazprom information policy department Sergey Kupriyanov said, however, that the Russian company is satisfied with its relations with Turkmenistan. “We have a contract and we are counting on its unconditional fulfillment,” he said. Reuters reported that the price agreed on with China for Turkmen gas is $90 per 1000 cu. m., which means that the country will have no arguments for raising the price of $100 per 1000 cu. m. that Russia is paying through 2009.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 31, 2007
|
|
|
