DUSHANBE June 10, Asia-Plus — State and prospects of further expansion of cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia the gas industry were a focus of a meeting of President Emomali Rahmon with deputy head of Russia’s state-controlled gas company also director general of closed joint-stock company Zarubezhneftegaz (Gazprom’s subsidiary) Valery Golubev in Dushanbe on June 10.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with President Rahmon, Golubev said that his company and Tajik ministry of energy and industries today signed an agreement on main principles of exploring gas and oil reserves in Tajikistan. “All these four fields are promising; however, there are difficulties with production work at these fields, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at large depth,” said Golubev. “Besides, it is also necessary to rehabilitate and expand gas-transporting infrastructure.”
According to him, development of those fields will allow increasing the volume of natural gas being extracted in Tajikistan to meet requirements of the population and enterprise as well as generate electrical power.
“To resolve the set tasks it is necessary to fulfill a number of conditions,” said the Gazprom official, “There needs to train skilled personnel, allot a plot of land in Dushanbe for the Gazprom representative office, expand gasification of the country.”
Asked about concrete gas fields Gazprom to explore, Golubev said that they had reached an agreement on two gas and oil fields so far – Rengan and Sargazon. The issue of two others (Sariqamysh and Olimtoi) is expected to be resolved by President Medvedev’s visit to Tajikistan, scheduled for August this year.
Golubev further added that exploration work alone requires some $500 million, while gas production may start in three-five years. He also noted that in the future, Tajikistan may export gas to other countries, including China and Afghanistan.
We will recall that an agreement on cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia on cooperation in the gas industry was singed in May 2003. In March 2006, Gazprom and Tajik Ministry of Energy signed a memorandum of understanding on launching an oil and gas joint venture. Initially, Gazprom has allocated $6 million to the joint venture. Gazprom holds the JV’s controlling stake. Under the deal, Gazprom will develop four gas fields – Sariqamysh and Rengan in the west, and Sargazon and Olimtoi in the south.
In December 2006, Gazprom received two licenses from the Tajik government to explore oil and gas reserves. The Rengan field, located 20 kilometers from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, has possible gas reserves of 35 billion cubic meters, according to Gazprom; Sargazon, located in Khatlon province 150 kilometers from Dushanbe, has possible reserves of 30 billion cubic meters.
Gazprom intends to explore oil and gas reserves of Sargazon, Rengan, Sariqamysh and Olimtoi in the coming five years.
According to expert estimates, the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000bn 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 km.
