OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2008. In accordance with the Resolution of the President of Turkmenistan an authoritative international consultant – the Gaffney, Cline & Associates Company (Great Britain) conducted an audit of natural gas resources of the fields Southern Yoloten-Osman and Yashlar in the Amu Darya River basin in the east of Turkmenistan. GCA Manager Jim Gillette gave an interview on the results of the work done.

“Conducting an audit of the gas fields in Turkmenistan is not only a very interesting project but also a great honour for our company which ranks among the large independent, international energy consulting firms with the broad network of the offices all over the world.

“Our task was to estimate the gas reserves of the fields in the eastern region of the country in accordance with the international system of resources estimation and classification.

“The specialists of the Turkmengeologiya State Concern had discovered the large deposit and done good work to initially estimate it. Our company conducted an audit of the results of this work. The geological models were designed in close collaboration with the Turkmen specialists who had been working together with our experts in the office in Great Britain for a month. These models contained the data provided by the Turkmengeologiya State Concern.

“Under the agreement with Turkmengeologiya we applied the standards of the international system of resources estimation and classification. At present the Turkmen specialists continue drilling and carry on additional seismological study that will allow receiving an additional data and reducing the degree of uncertainty in the amount of resources.

“In accordance with the current data the gas reserves in Southern Yoloten-Osman are estimated as: the low estimate – 4 trillion cubic metres, the optimum estimate – 6 trillion cubic metres and the high estimate – 14 trillion cubic metres. Just to compare, the optimum estimate in Southern Yoloten-Osman field is 5 times as higher as that in the largest field in Turkmenistan – Dovletabad. This fact allows ranking it the fifth or the fourth in the world.

“Estimation of Turkmenistan’s gas reserves by the authoritative independent international expert is of particular importance for guaranteeing the supply of resources to the large gas pipelines under construction as well as proposed by Turkmenistan that will transport Turkmen natural gas to the world market. On the basis of the proved substantial amount of gas it is obvious that the existing amount of gas is quite enough for Turkmenistan to meet its contract obligations.

“The world practice shows that it is better to develop such huge fields stage by stage – each stage is designed for production of 10 billion cubic meters a year.

“Our company conducted an audit of the Yashlar field. It also ranks among the large gas fields. According to our audit local gas reserves are estimated as: the low estimate - 0.25 trillion cubic metres, the optimum estimate - 0.675 trillion cubic metres and the high estimate - 1.5 trillion cubic metres.

“On behalf of our company I would like to congratulate President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov and the people of Turkmenistan on the discovery of the huge deposit and wish success in developing it. The Gaffney, Cline & Associates Company would be delighted to offer its services to Turkmenistan.”