DUSHANBE, October 15, 2012, Asia-Plus — Exploration of gas fields is going on in Tajikistan. Asia-Plus about Gazprom International
As of October 1, 2012, Gazprom International, an affiliate of Russia’s state-controlled company Gazprom, drilled 4,919 meters of the 6,300-meter Shahrinav-1P wildcat well at the Sariqamish field, which is 80 percent of the drilling operation, an official source at the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI) told Asia-Plus in an interview.
The possible gas reserves of Sariqamish field in the Shahrinav district are reportedly estimated at 18 billion cubic meters and its possible oil reserves are estimated at 17 million tons. The Sariqamish field’s possible reserves of oil-dissolved gas are estimated at 2 billion cubic meters.
We will recall that 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.
However, Gazprom International is not the only company exploring gas fields in Tajikistan. Several foreign and domestic gas exploration and development not operate in Tajikistan: JV Somon Oil (Tajikistan-Switzerland); Tethys Petroleum (Canada); JV Petroleum Sughd (Tajikistan-Austria); as well as Tajik limited liability companies Salosa; Azizi-1; Shohon; Hasan & Co; Haloli; Nafti Temourmalik; and Abadi.
Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia with activities currently in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This highly prolific oil and gas area is rapidly developing and Tethys believes that significant potential exists in both exploration and in discovered deposits.
Tethys announced in late July that its Tajikistan assets cover an area of approximately 35,000 sq. km and the estimated gross unrisked mean recoverable resources are 27.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). The primary strategy in Tajikistan is to complete a comprehensive geological and geophysical data gathering exercise with the intention of locating and drilling the first deep exploration well below the regional salt layer. This deep well will target very large prospective resources, as set out in the independent resource report. These prospects have never been drilled before in Tajikistan but are prolific producers from similar reservoirs in the adjacent countries including Turkmenistan.
In late August, Tethys reportedly launched the Tajik seismic program. The program, up to 870 km of 2D seismic acquisition, is designed to identify a drilling location for the first deep well expected to commence in 2013.
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.
