Tajikistan asks Gazprom to accelerate exploration at country's gas fields
DUSHANBE. Feb 10 (Interfax) - Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov has asked Russian gas major OJSC Gazprom to accelerate exploration at the country's gas fields and to begin producing natural gas, a Tajik government representative told Interfax.
Akilov voiced his request at a meeting in Dushanbe with member of Gazprom's management board and head of its Gas, Oil and Gas Condensate Production Department Vsevolod Cherepanov, and director of Gazprom International (implements the company's international projects) Valery Gulev.
"During the meeting, the prime minister asked the Gazprom representatives to speed up drilling work at the Sarikamysh field and to finally begin geological exploration work at the West Shokhambary field," the Tajik government representative said.
Gazprom subsidiary CJSC Gazprom zarubezhneftegaz, which, among other activities, develops fields in Tajikistan, said on its website that it considers a continuation of geological development at two other Tajik fields - Rengan and Sargazon - to be commercially inexpedient.
"Work carried out at the Rengan and Sargazon sections has shown that, despite the sections' continued theoretical prospects, their development at the present stage, by virtue of complex mining and geological conditions, is commercially inexpedient. The Russian side has voiced the proposal to transfer new licenses for other promising sections in the republic to Gazprom," the subsidiary's website said.
Gazprom has been developing four fields with oil and gas potential in Tajikistan since 2008: Sarikamysh, Sargazon, Rengan and West Shokhambary. The most promising field is Sarikamysh, which has estimated reserves of 20 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas and 17 million tonnes of oil.
At present, Tajikistan almost completely depends on natural gas and petroleum product imports.
Besides Gazprom's subsidiary structures, Canada's Tethys Petroleum also develops gas fields in Tajikistan.
Last year, Tajikistan produced 18.7 million cubic meters of natural gas and 28,700 tonnes of oil. It imported 179.7 million cu m of gas from Uzbekistan and 440,900 tonnes of light petroleum products from Russia.
