World's Energy

Oct. 15, 2008 - Kommersant - An international auditor has announced it determination of the natural gas reserves of Turkmenistan fields. The British Gaffney, Cline & Associates has stated that the reserves of the South Iolotanya and Osmana fields are comparable to Russia’s largest fields. The company’s audit has confirmed statements made by Turkmen officials that had been initially met with skepticism. If all of the company’s findings are confirmed Turkmenistan will have reserves just 20 percent lower than those of Russia and will be able to sell its gas to Gazprom and European countries simultaneously. The British company found that the South Iolotanya and Osmana fields in southeast Turkmenistan contain five times the reserves at the Dovletabad field, the resource base for Gazprom purchases that had previously been considered the country’s largest field. According to Gaffney, Cline spokesman Jim Gillett, under the international estimation and classification system, the low estimate is 4 trillion cu. m. of gas, the optimal estimate is 6 trillion cu. m. and the high estimate is 14 trillion cu. m. It is, therefore, the fourth or fifth largest gas field in the world. Gaffney, Cline and DeGolyer and MacNaughton made estimates of Turkmenistan’s gas reserves in 2004, but their findings were not made public. Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov stated two months before his death that the country’s reserves were sufficient to export 150 billion cu. m. for the next 250 years, but no one outside the country took his statement seriously and the country was suspected of selling the same gas to Russia and China. Now Turkmenbashi has been vindicated. A source in Gazprom said yesterday that the agreement the Russian monopoly signed on July 25 with Turkmengaz does not involve South Iolotanya or Osmana. Another Gazprom executive said in 2006 that gas from that field was “high in sulfur and easily accessible.” Analysts say the estimate is good news for the European Union. The Nabucco pipeline project, considered the main challenge to Gazprom’s position on the European market, has not had a resource base. Now it is likely to find one.