TPT January 2008

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Oil & Gas News
January 2008 80 ›
pipeline are surmounted. From Turkey, the gas could enter the
Nabucco pipeline to eastern Europe. That pipeline, too, is not even
at the planning stage.
But Mr Berdymukhammedov has said that Turkmenistan is willing
to sell gas to Europe. And that, apparently, is enough for the US
to build a dream on; or, at least, to be worth mounting a charm
offensive when the chance offered.
Meanwhile, Russia and more recently China are receiving the bulk
of Turkmenistan’s natural gas exports. Russia buys 1.76 trillion
cubic feet of Turkmen gas a year at below-market prices. China has
signed a development agreement for one of Turkmenistan’s most
promising gas fields and will receive 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas
annually over 30 years.
Russia controls all export routes for Turkmen natural gas and plans
to double its purchases by means of an expansion of its main
northern pipeline.
■ When Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met his Iranian
counterpart President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on October 16
in Tehran, at a summit of the five nations that border the inland
Caspian Sea, his major message was a thinly veiled warning to
the US against any attempt to use the former Soviet republic of
Azerbaijan as a staging area for possible military action against
Iran. But Mr Putin also said that any oil pipeline projects in
the region must have the joint backing of the Caspian Sea
countries: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and
Iran.
Mr Putin thus reinforced Moscow’s strong opposition to any
US-backed efforts at mounting cross-Caspian energy pipeline
projects that would bypass Russia to deliver fuel to the West.
Couching his objections in ecological terms, he said, “Projects
that may inflict serious environmental damage to the region
cannot be implemented without prior discussion by all five
Caspian nations.”
Elsewhere in oil and gas . . .
■ Bangladesh is seeking $51 million in funding from the World
Bank to develop a gas field and construct a pipeline, the
Indian business newspaper Financial Express said from
Dhaka on November 2. The project is part of a government
effort to amplify the country’s sources of natural gas after a
warning that current reserves could run out in 10 years. The
decades-old Samutang field in the southeastern Chittagong
region has proven reserves of about 150 billion cubic feet
of gas, the paper said, quoting an official agency. Over all,
Bangladesh has proven natural gas reserves of up to 15
trillion cubic feet. Foreign companies have invested heavily
to explore and produce gas alongside the state-run energy
company Petrobangla.
■ Also from the Financial Express, datelined New Delhi,
the Indian state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) on
October 31 said it was in talks with London-based Hindujas
for jointly developing a 15 million metric ton refinery at