DUSHANBE, October 7, 2013, Asia-Plus — Igor Shatalov, the head of Gazprom International’s office in Dushanbe has denied report released by some media that Tajikistan has allegedly increased its share in the Sariqamish field as unfounded.
We will recall that some media reported that following recent visit of Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and Gazprom International CEO Valery Gulev to Tajikistan Tajikistan’s share in the Sariqamish field had been increased from 25 to 30 percent.
“Gazprom International did not make any production sharing deal with Tajikistan,” Shatalov.
Gazprom International, an affiliate of Russia’s state-controlled company Gazprom, completed the drilling of the Shahrinva-1P wildcat well at the Sariqamish field, Shahrinav district in central Tajikistan, some 36 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe, last June. According to Gazprom International’s office in Tajikistan, they reached the target well depth of 6,300 meters.
The Sariqamish field reportedly has possible gas reserves of 18 billion cubic meters, possible oil reserves of 17 million tons, and possible dissolved gas reserves of 2 billion cubic meters.
Gazprom chief Alexei Miller visited Tajikistan on September 17-18. He told journalists after the talks with President Rahmon on September 18 that his company is interested in obtaining more licenses to explore natural-gas fields in Tajikistan.
According to Miller, Gazprom has invested some $150 million in two major natural-gas fields in Tajikistan”s north since 2010.
In August, Gazprom reportedly announced an additional $15 million investment in its operations at the Sariqamish gas field.
Gazprom now has licenses to explore two oil-and-gas reserves in Tajikistan: Sariqamish and the Western Shohambari.
Cooperation between the Tajik government and Russia’s state-controlled company Gazprom is regulated by a long-term (till 2028) agreement on strategic cooperation in the gas industry signed between Gazprom and Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy in Dushanbe on May 15, 2003 and a memorandum of intent on launching joint Tajik-Russian enterprises of March 28, 2006. Gazprom has been working in Tajikistan on providing the beginning of geological explorations since July 2006.
According to expert estimates, the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000 billion tons of reference fuel. At the same time, production work at oil and gas fields require considerable expenditure, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at depths ranging from 6.5 to 8 kilometers.
