OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2009. During field meeting on the issue of further development of the fuel and energy sector of Turkmenistan, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov urged the industry managers to be more active in further modernizing the infrastructure, developing and strengthening the raw material base of the oil and gas industry, increasing exploration, reducing the number of inactive wells and production losses.

The president stressed that the industry leaders bear personally responsibility for a full-fledged solution to the tasks posed for them and will report regularly on the progress made.

"Turkmenistan is planning to increase gas production to 250 billion cubic meters, and oil - up to 100 million tons per year. There is no reason to look back at the world economic crisis. The period of recession in the global economy is invariably followed by a period of rapid expansion, which is usually associated with an increase in energy consumption. Given this factor, we now need to create reserve funds for the future, attract more foreign investment, stake on the development of industrial science, introduce the most advanced technologies, including nanotechnology in the energy sector," the president said.

"The international community supported strongly the initiative of Turkmenistan, which was put forward at the UN, to ensure reliable and stable transit of energy resources as an important factor of energy security as a whole. All these steps will make it possible to resolve in the near future the issue of diversification of Turkmenistan's gas exports to the world markets," Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said.