DUSHANBE, April 13, 2009, Asia-Plus — Seismic survey of the natural-gas field Sargazon in Khatlon’s Danghara district, carried out by Gazprom’s affiliate Zarubezhneftegaz, has not yielded desirable results, the head of the Main Geology Directorate under the Government of Tajikistan Azim Ibrohimi announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 13.
According to him, it is hard to know from the report submitted to the government by Zarubezhneftegaz whether the Sargazon field has enough gas reserves or not.
“When conducting the survey, Russian specialists have used 2D method while this method does not allow conducting proper exploration of gas fields in such areas of complex geological structure,” said Ibrohimi, noting that it was necessary to use 3D technologies. Tajik official considers it necessary to conduct additional more qualitative seismic survey of the Sargazon field.
At present, the Zarubezhneftegaz specialists are working on the Sariqamish field in the Shahrinav districts, some 40 kilometers to the west of Dushanbe. He expressed hope that the Russian specialists would use 3D technologies for exploration of the Sariqamish field.
Cooperation between the Tajik government and Russia’s state-controlled gas 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.
Gazprom has received licenses from the Tajik government to explore four oil-and-gas reserves in Tajikistan: Rengan; Sargazon; Sariqamish; and the Western Shaambari.
According to Gazprom, the Rengan field, located in the Roudaki district, 20 kilometers from the Tajik capital, has possible gas reserves of 35 billion cubic meters. As it had been reported earlier, the Sargazon field, located in Khatlon’s Danghara district, some 150 kilometers from Dushanbe, has possible reserves of 30 billion cubic meters.
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.
