OREANDA-NEWS. March 05, 2010. The participants of the Second Turkmen-British Energy Bussiness Forum discussed the priority aspects of mutually advantageous partnership in the fuel and energy sector. The forum was organized by the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan and the British Embassy in Turkmenistan with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The participants represented the Department of Energy and Climate Change of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the leading British oil and gas and service companies and educational institutions. Turkmenistan was represented by the leaders and experts of the oil and gas departments and enterprises.

This was the second meeting conducted by the Turkish and British businessmen for the past two years that illustrated the British companies’ growing willingness to expand cooperation with Turkmenistan, which had won the reputation worldwide as a very promising and dependable partner. The British businessmen noted that the key conditions fostering an interest of the European and British business communities in Turkmenistan included the energy policy initiated by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and known well in the world community as aimed at ensuring reliable and stable transit of energy to world markets and the abundant hydrocarbon reserves.

Noting that the major priorities for the EU countries included energy security and search for new energy corridors to Europe Lord Philip Hunt, Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change evaluated highly Turkmenistan’s efforts to build consistently and successfully diversified system for hydrocarbon exports. “I believe that today’s meeting with His Excellency President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and the well-organized business forum will give new impetus to further cooperation in such a priority for both countries field as the fuel and energy sector,” Lord Philip Hunt said.

The high-ranking officials of the Turkmen fuel and energy departments of Turkmenistan briefed the foreign guests on the legal aspects of cooperation with the huge resource potential and the priority trends in development of the oil and gas sector. It was noted that implementing the energy policy initiated by the national leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov Turkmenistan resolutely extended the geography of export routes for natural gas. Along with traditional ‘blue fuel’ exports to Russia Turkmenistan started to supply natural gas to China last December and had significantly increased gas exports to Iran via the second southern pipeline Dovletabad-Sarahs-Hangeran.

The Turkmen enterprises take measures to develop further transport infrastructure that allow expanding Turkmenistan’s export potential and accelerating the activities to put proven deposits in production. The relevant illustrations include the largest Southern Yoloten-Osman deposit, the huge reserves of which were confirmed by the British Gaffney, Cline & Associates firm. The leading companies from the PRC, UAE and the Republic of Korea are Turkmengaz’s partners on the implementation of the first stage of commercial development of this field. To date, total of over 1,000 oil and gas pools have been discovered and over 150 deposits have been explored in the country, one third of them are under development.

The programme of further development of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas industry opens up the ample opportunities for international cooperation on oil and gas exploration and production in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea, modernization of existing processing facilities and construction of new ones, development of pipeline infrastructure, application of advanced technologies and state-of-the-art equipment in industry.

The important aspects of cooperation discussed at the Business Forum included expansion of partnership for training highly qualified fuel and energy specialists. The large-scale programmes of modernization and development of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas industry require the new approaches to managing vocational training of local specialists in advanced foreign technologies and operation of state-of-the-art equipment.

The forum participants representing the British companies expressed the readiness to implement joint projects, offer their profound expertise and advanced technologies and made investments in these projects. It should be noted that along with the long-time partners of the Turkmen fuel and energy sector including British Petroleum, Shell, Burren Energy, Gaffney, Cline & Associates, a number of the other companies including Denton Wilde Sapte, Skybridge, KBR, Hermes, which sought to operate on the very promising Turkmen market, presented their potential at the Business Forum.

The specific proposals and priority fields of further cooperation were set forth in the protocol of intent, which was signed by the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change upon concluding the Business Forum. The participants expressed belief that the exchange of views aimed at identifying the ways to foster effective cooperation in compliance with the priorities of the policy of the Turkmen state would be a new step to promote energy partnership.