Petrofac wins new $200 mln Turkmengas operations contract for Galkynysh gas field
ASHGABAT. March 11 (Interfax) - Petrofac, a leading provider of services for the global energy industry, has secured an operations contract from state company Turkmengas at the huge Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan.
The three-year contract, worth over $200 million, includes provision of personnel to supervise and support operations and maintenance activity; the provision of technical support and procurement services; and the development and implementation of management systems to support efficient operations of the Galkynysh gas field Central Processing Facilities 1 and 1A, Petrofac reported on its website.
No performance guarantees are required to be posted in relation to this contract, the company said.
The facilities that Petrofac will support are located near Yoloten, Mary Province and have equal capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Petrofac said the new contract was secured based on previous successful experience working with Turkmengas at Galkynysh.
In 2013, Petrofac completed a project at the field under a 2009 contract, designing and building a facility to strip commercial gas of sulfur with annual capacity of 10 bcm, as well as surface production facilities with capacity of 20 bcm. This "was one of the largest engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPC) projects delivered by Petrofac's Engineering & Construction business unit," the company said.
Galkynysh is the world's second largest field by gas reserves after the South Pars field in Iran. Independent UK firm Gafney, Cline & Associates estimated its reserves (together with the satellite Yashlar field) at 27.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
At this stage of exploration maturity, projections envision seven stages of field development with production eventually reaching 200 bcm per year. The first stage, which took production to 30 bcm per year, is now being implemented. This gas is shipped to the domestic market and exported to China along three strings of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China pipeline.
In 2023 it was reported that negotiations were underway on the details of a contract to start drilling wells and building field infrastructure for the second stage, gas from which will be used to export an additional 25 bcm per year to China taking into account four strings of a pipeline that is supposed to be built from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The third stage is aimed at exporting 33 bcm of gas per year along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, construction of which is now underway. The fourth stage, according to Turkmengas plans, could provide gas for export along the Trans-Caspian pipeline, which will become part of the Southern Gas Corridor.