DUSHANBE, September 29, Asia-Plus — Closed joint-stock company (CJSC) Gazprom Zarubezhneftegaz is making preparations for drilling an exploratory well at the Shahrinav-1P location, 36 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe, according to the representative office of Gazprom Zarubezhneftegaz in Dushanbe.
Three vehicles carrying ponderous equipment (totaling 84 tons) have already arrived in the well site, the source said. In all, 370 tons of equipment will be delivered to the Shanrinav-1P location from September 25 to October 3. The drill unit is expected to be installed until the end of October.
The general contractor is limited liability company, Orenburg Burovaya Kompaniya (Orenburg Drilling Company) and the company plans to launch the drilling operation in November.
Of all the four licensed sites of Gazprom in Tajikistan, Sariqamish is estimated as the most promising. The Shahrinav-1P well will be the deepest borehole in Tajikistan; the depth of this borehole will be 6,300 meters.
Gazprom Zarubezhneftegaz is an affiliate of Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom. Gazprom has received licenses from the Tajik government to explore four oil-and-gas reserves in Tajikistan: Rengan; Sargazon; Sariqamish; and the Western Shaambari. The Rengan field, located in the Roudaki district, 20 kilometers from the Tajik capital, has possible gas reserves of 35 billion cubic meters and the Sargazon field, located in Khatlon province, some 150 kilometers of 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.
