TPT January 2008

Oil & Gas News

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

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J anuary 2008

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