Turkmenistan invites UK business community to Caspian projects

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14/10 Tass 25

ASHGABAT, October 14 (Itar-Tass) - Turkmenistan has invited the
British business community to participate in projects for the development
of hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian shelf and their transportation to
international markets. These cooperation spheres were named as priorities
at the first meeting of the Turkmen-British trade-industrial council that
opened in Ashgabat on Wednesday.
Taking part in the cooperation prospects are representatives of the
leadership of such well-known companies as Shell, British Petroleum, Rolls
Royce and others.
The oil and natural gas cooperation issue became the central at a
meeting of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov with the
head of the British delegation - co-chairman of the joint trade-industrial
council Ronald Nash, the national television reported. "Turkmenistan
intends to develop large-scale cooperation with Great Britain that is
among our country's long-term and major partners," Berdymukhamedov said.
He called for the attraction of technology and experience of British
companies to projects aimed at modernisation of the production
infrastructure of the oil and gas sphere and diversification of the routes
of exports of energy resources to world markets.
Great Britain sees in Turkmenistan an exclusively promising and solid
business partner, Nash noted for his part. He told the Turkmen president
about the UK companies' aspiration to expand their presence on the
promising, dynamically developing Turkmen market, including in the sphere
of telecommunications. Construction, aircraft buildings and publishing.
Discussing cooperation prospects the Turkmen president stressed the
important issue of participation of companies in the upgrading of skills
and training of national specialists in advanced technologies, as well as
pointed to the need of monitoring the development of cooperation. In this
connection Berdymukhamedov supported the idea to hold meetings of the
Turkmen-British council every six months in Ashgabat and in Great Britain
in succession.
The trade turnover between Turkmenistan and the UK over the first
seven months of 2010 accounted for over 126 million US dollars. A total of
55 British companies are registered in Ashgabat. The main import item is
the Turkmen crude oil and petroleum products.
The energy sector is the mainstay of the Turkmen economy and the
source of the financing of the vast construction projects taking place in
the country. Turkmenistan has significant long-term energy potential, with
the world's fifth largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil
deposits. Gaffney, Cline & Associates, a British Company, carried out an
audit of the reserves in June 2008 and confirmed the large deposits.
Historically, most of its gas exports have gone to countries in the former
Soviet Union like Russia and Ukraine, which paid well below world market
prices. However, in April 2009 there was a rift in Russian-Turkmen
relations after an explosion on the main gas supply line to Russia, which
stopped the flow of gas for the remainder of 2009. The pipeline reopened
in January 2010 but at much reduced volumes. Keen to lessen dependence on
Russia, Turkmenistan had opened a small capacity gas pipeline to Iran in
1997 and increased this with a second pipeline, opened in January 2010,
which could increase exports up to 20 bcm annually.
The negotiations will continue on Thursday at Turkmenistan's
ministries and departments.
-0-ezh