OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2008. The large oil and gas forum, which had brought the businessmen representing dozens of the foreign firms and companies from over 20 countries worldwide, vividly evidenced the foreign partners’ intense interest and readiness for close mutually advantageous co-operation with Turkmenistan

The three-day international exhibition and conference Exploration, Prospecting and Development of Gas Fields and Mineral Resources was organized by the Turkmengaz State Concern, the Turkmenneftegazstroy State Concern, the Turkmengeologiya State Corporation and their partners - the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan and the RPI Consulting Company.

During the meetings and talks the high-ranking officials of the organisation departments of Turkmenistan’s fuel and energy sector and their potential partners discussed a broad range of the issues related to further development of long-term co-operation in this strategic sector of Turkmen economy.

Speaking at the conference the specialists of the well-known oil and gas and service companies said that the international business community studied and analysed the opportunities of operating on the very promising Turkmen market as Turkmenistan’s dependable partners in implementing its profound resource potential.

The factors making the Turkmen market attractive included open door policy, the political and economic stability in the country and the legislation steadily improved in compliance with the norms of international law. In this regard emphasis was put on significance of the recently adopted laws, in particular the Law “On Foreign Investments”, which provided the firm guarantees of protection of the rights of foreign investors and thus offering the powerful incentives to actively collaborate in the large-scale projects implemented in Turkmenistan, to attract advanced technologies and the best international practice in Turkmenistan’s fuel and energy sector.

In this context the participants exchanged views on effective collaboration in all trends of development of the national oil and gas industry including exploration and extraction of hydrocarbon resources, modernisation of processing industries, development of pipeline infrastructure, procurement of up-to-date equipment.

The opportunities of joint exploration and development of the off-shore deposits in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea on the PCA terms was a main agenda item. The foreign partners’ increased interest in co-operation had been conditioned by the abundant hydrocarbon resources proved by Western Geophysical (the United States).

The participants defined on land service works, in particular collaboration in establishing the gas industry infrastructure, as a very promising field of mutual interests. The Turkmen partners said that endeavoring to place its energy potential at the service of mankind Turkmenistan made the specific steps to establish the multi-variant system for exporting its energy resources to world market. Thus, the large-scale projects such as the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline project and the Caspian gas pipeline project had been launched.

The three-day international conference visited by thousands of the people and guests of Ashgabat, vividly illustrated the potential of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas industry. The expositions presented by the Turkmengaz State Concern, the Turkmenneft State Concern, the Turkmenneftegazstroy State Concern, the Turkmenhimiya State Concern, the Turkmengeologiya Corporation were of particular interest to the visitors. Dozens of the foreign companies and firms including those fruitfully working in Turkmenistan over many years as well as those studying the opportunities of operating on the Turkmen market presented their industrial, technological and research potential.