DUSHANBE, November 7, Asia-Plus – Work on development and operation of an oilfield Olimtoy in the Farkhor district of Khatlon has begun, according to the Ministry of Energy (MoE).
A source at a MoE said that the country’s government had provided 800,000 somonis to fund this work. According to the source, 100 meters are expected to have been drilled by the end of this year.
“Boring work in the oilfield Olimtoy, whose anticipated oil resources amount to 3.9 million tons, will be finished in three years,” the MoE source said, adding that Tajikistan intends to have increased extraction of oil and natural gas by 2010. “If investments in development and operation of the country’s oil and gas fields are considerable, we will be able to increase extraction of oil up to 32,000 tons per year and natural gas up to more than 60 million cubic meters per year.”
According to the source, Tajikistan have produced 19,293 tons of oil over the first nine months of this year, which is 363 tons fewer than it was originally planned for this nine-month period. “This year, Tajikistan intends to produce 23,600 tons of oil, and this target, most likely, will be fulfilled”
This year’s target on natural gas has been determined at 40 million cubic meters. “In January-October of this year, Tajikistan has produced 16.5 million cubic meters of natural gas, while the target for this ten-month period has been determined at 29.7 million cubic meters,” said the source, “The main reason for such low indices is the fact that resources of these gas fields, which have been operated over the past 35 years, have been exhausted.” To develop and operate new gas fields the country needs considerable funds, according to him.
The source added that in 1985, the republic produced 389,000 tons of oil and 309 million cubic meters of natural gas.
The aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000 billion tons of reference fuel, according to expert estimates. 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 km. International experts question the profitability of such deposits.
In March this year, the Ministry of Energy and Russia’s Gazprom Joint-Stock Company signed in Dushanbe a memorandum on the launch of an oil-and-gas joint venture in Tajikistan. Under the deal, Gazprom will develop four gas fields – Sariqamish and Rengan in the west, and Sargazon and Olimtoy in the south. Proven gas resources in Sarikamysh and Rengan total 40 billion cubic meters and Sargazon 30 billion, while the Olimtoi deposit has yet to be prospected. Aleksey Miller, the head of the Gazprom board, noted that time that initially, they would allocate $6 million from their budget to the joint venture. On the parties’ shares in the venture”s authorized capital, Miller said that there was a principled agreement that Gazprom would hold the JV”s controlling stake.
