Tuesday November 4 5:59 AM EST
Three Turkmen oil/gas fields excluded from tender
ASHGABAT, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan has excluded three oil and gas fields from an original list of 11 areas in the
Caspian Sea for sale in a tender, an official from the former Soviet republic's state oil firm Turkmenneft said on Tuesday.
''Turkmenistan has excluded from the international tender the Caspian fields of Lachin, Yelbars and Burgut with total estimated
reserves of 484 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas and 736 million tonnes of oil,'' the official told Reuters.
He said the decision on the three offshore fields which lie along the Turkmen-Iranian border in the Caspian had been taken
after Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov met Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi last month.
The two countries agreed in October they would develop the riches of the three fields together.
On September 1, Turkmenistan officially opened an international tender for rights to develop oil and gas riches on 11 of its 30
offshore fields in the Caspian Sea.
According to Turkmenneft data, the eight remaining offshore fields hold estimated reserves of 1.6 billion tonnes of oil and 1.3
trillion cubic metres of gas.
The Turkmenneft official said these areas would be presented to potential investors at a roadshow opening in Houston later on
Tuesday.
Bids to take part in the tender will be accepted until November 28. Results must be drawn by January 1, 1998.
Turkmenistan -- a resource-rich but impoverished Central Asian state of four million -- hopes world energy majors will take
part in the tender.
Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS) (SHEL.L), Mobil Corp (MOB), Unocal Corp (UCL), Amoco Corp (AN), Exxon (XON), Agip
SpA 1/8AGIS.CN (,) Japan National Oil Corp, Turkish Petroleum Company and Iran's oil ministry have already purchased
seismic information packages. |
