Ashgabat to sign development contracts with European and US firms

Ashgabat plans to sign a number of contracts with European and American companies to develop the Serdar oil deposit and several other promising offshore sections of the Turkmenistani part of the Caspian Sea in the near future. The total value of these contracts is expected to run into $ 10 bn, said Deputy Prime Minister Yelly Kurbanmuradov, who is in charge of the republic's oil and gas complex.

According to Kurbanmuradov, if implemented, these contracts will make it possible to extract more than 80 mm tons of oil. The Turkmenistani part of the Caspian Sea has an estimated 6.7 bn tons of oil reserves and 4.5 tcm of gaseous hydrocarbons. Dragon Oil, majority-owned by Arab interests, and Malaysia's Petronas are currently prospecting in the area and developing local offshore deposits on production-sharing terms.