Mobil, Cairn and Texuna loose exclusive rights in Turkmenistan

U.S. Mobil, Britain's Cairn Energy and Texuna of Hong Kong have lost their exclusive rights to develop two oil and gas deposits in Turkmenistan, an official spokesman said.
"The companies Mobil, Cairn Energy and Texuna are deprived of their rights to hold talks with the Turkmen government on the licensing of the territories of Serdar and Gaplan fields on the Turkmen shelf in the Caspian," a spokesman for the Presidential Competent Organ for the Use of Hydrocarbons told.
He said the companies had failed to begin talks within the time frame set by the government.

At the first round of international tenders for opening the Turkmen sector of the Caspian shelf in June, Mobil received the right to exploit Serdar field and a consortium including Cairn and Texuna received the rights to Gaplan.
Serdar covers around 400 sq. km and contains deposits of 50-100 mm tons of oil. Gaplan is four times the area and contains deposits of around 90 mm tons of oil.
Ownership of Serdar field is contested byAzerbaijan, which calls it Kyapaz.
Russia's Lukoil and Rosneft signed a $ 1 bn deal in 1997 with Azerbaijan to tap the field. But Turkmenistan's protests forced Russia to annul the deal.

The Presidential Competent Organ was to work out terms for a production sharing agreement to be signed, clinching the deals within three months.
The government proposed a model contract calling for a 26-year term, renewable for up to a further 9 years, with the state oil company Turkmenneft receiving a stake of between 5 and 15 % in the project.
The spokesman for the Presidential Competent Organ said there would be no new tender for the deposits, but that new deals would be worked out in direct talks with investors.
Turkmenistan estimates the probable reserves of its sector of the Caspian shelf at 6.5 bn tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cm of natural gas.