15th ANNIVERSARY OF INTERNATIONAL GAS & OIL BUSINESS FORUM HELD IN TURKMENISTAN
On November 17-19, Turkmenistan held its major annual Gas & Oil Conference, inviting over 400 participants including the representatives of over 160 international business companies, scientists and technical experts to seek new ways to develop the country’s gas and oil industry.
The ITE Group Plc, with headquarters in London and an organizer of leading business conferences and exhibitions in growing and developing markets, held this year’s conference in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat in collaboration with the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan. Along with the business forum, the respective ministries of the gas and oil industry of Turkmenistan and foreign companies organized an exhibition in the Sergi Palace displaying new technologies for exploration, extraction and transportation of hydrocarbon resources.
As reported by the State News Agency of Turkmenistan (TDH), the conference attracted major companies such as the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Petronas, Dragon Oil, Wintershall, Gazprom, Stroitransgas, Tatneft, Integra, Komatsu Ltd., German electric power and natural gas company RWE, British Petroleum (BP), Austria’s largest oil producing, refining and gas station operating company OMV, Chevron, Total, ExxonMobil, Shell and many others. In the forum agenda, special attention was given to attracting more investment and rapid development of the chemical sector, and new gas and oil fields in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. The Turkmen State News Service (TDH) has earlier reported that the three U.S. oil companies Chevron, ConocoPhillips and TXOil, as well as Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, were to be designated as the preferred bidders for tenders to explore two blocks in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. In addition, the Turkmen authorities also set out new priorities for the expansion of domestic and international transport infrastructure as well as education and training of Turkmen nationals in the gas and oil industry.
Addressing the delegates at the Gas & Oil conference, the First Deputy Prime Minister Baymurad Khojamukhamedov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying that Turkmenistan is ready to provide 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project. He further noted that a key internal East-West pipeline is currently being constructed to connect Turkmenistan’s major gas fields to the envisioned Nabucco project and also assured Turkmenistan’s energy partners that the country possesses sufficient gas deposits to be able to meet its supply needs apart from domestic consumption.
The conference was regarded as successful as the level of interest in Turkmenistan’s oil and gas market is growing among major foreign investors willing to do business in the country. Apart from being a dynamic platform for participating delegations to establish mutually beneficial contacts, the event also signaled a new tendency or increased desire of Turkmen authorities for ‘investment openness’ and commitment to develop and implement new projects with international companies.
The timing of the Gas & Oil Conference coincidentally matched the time of the third Caspian Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the heads of five littoral states were meeting to reach an Agreement on Security Cooperation in the Caspian Sea and possible consensus on the legal status of the Sea. As the Turkmen authorities were considering potential investment opportunities at the business forum in Ashgabat, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov flew to Baku to lay out Turkmenistan’s position on specific issues such as constructing pipelines on the Caspian seabed. “Turkmenistan is firmly convinced that underwater pipelines in the Caspian Sea should be built only with the consent of those countries, across whose sections of the seabed pipelines will be built” said the president at the summit.
Though there is yet no formal agreement involving Turkmenistan and EU partners over Nabucco, calling for investment to develop the Turkmen sector of the Caspian offshore gas and oil fields, recent Turkish-Turkmen negotiations to purchase Turkmen gas and also Berdimuhammedov’s statements at the Caspian Summit indicate that Turkmenistan is steadily moving to reach out the European energy market. The fact that Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea neighbors acquiesced to build a pipeline on the seabed at the Caspian Summit in Baku further strengthens Turkmenistan’s position to diversify its energy export routes apart from its already existing gas pipelines to Russia, Iran, China and the envisioned TAPI to Pakistan and India.
