Oil boom
Agreements reached during the tripartite meeting of Heads of States of Turkmenistan, Russia and Kazakhstan in May this year have already started to be implemented.
The main topics of the meeting were cooperation in the areas of exploration, development and transportation of natural energy carriers as well as perspectives of attracting foreign investments into the oil and gas sector of the Turkmen economy.
LUKOIL, Russia’s largest oil company, received a “go ahead” to start field development of three prospective oil deposits in the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea on June 12th 2007.
According to independent experts, oil reserves in the Caspian Turkmen shelf are about 11 billion ton. Dragon Oil, an English-Arab oil company, have for a long time been the only company crude oil on the seashore of Turkmenistan. In May 2006 Petronas, Malaysian company, also started oil recovery. At present the Turkmen shelf is being explored by the Dutch company “Majersk” and the German “Wintershall”.
Russia has been represented at negotiations by Vagit Alikperov, President of LUKOIL - a man who is solid in all respects. According to “Forbes” magazine, Alikperov, having made a fortune of 12.4 billion US dollars through only his own endeavours, is 8th on the list of richest people in Russia and 48th on the list of richest people of the world. He does however need to take some urgent measures to catch up with Abramovich and Bill Gates who are far ahead.
It is not only Russian companies who are attracted to participating in developing oil deposits in Turkmenistan. The country’s President has already had meetings on the issue with the Chairman of oil concern TNK-BP and invited the American oil giant Chevron, already actively involved in oil recovery in Kazakhstan, to take part in exploration on the Caspian shelf.
on June 18th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Indeed, Alekperov is already due to make a repeat visit to Turkmenistan, currently scheduled for June 29, according to LUKoil vice president Leonid Fedun.
Russian news agency AK&M cites Fedun as saying that the specific outline of LUKoil’s projects will be officially announced after Alekperov’s meeting with Berdymukhammedov.
What will be interesting to watch is whether TNK-BP, which has been subject of considerable state pressure in Russia, and LUKoil will operate in the country on an equitable basis.
Already, prospects look poor for the British-Russian joint venture. Specialist energy publication NEFTE Compass reported Sunday that a joint venture between LUKoil and gas firm Gazprom may come as early as next week. The cooperation would hinge on LUKoil’s willingness to guarantee Gazprom viable prices for gas from the Karachaganak field in northwest Kazakhstan.
The final scenario is still far from from clear, but the essence seems to be that TNK-BP would be an unlikely candidate to compete for Turkmen hydrocarbon resources.