Page 7 - MEOG Week 32
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impact on exploration and production. Mean- while, all eyes are on Russia and Iran – the only littoral states that are yet to ratify last year’s con- vention. Attending the forum, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said ratification was anticipated “in the near future”. Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, who also spoke at the event, did not make any such commitments.
Separately, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have not announced any progress on developing a trans-Caspian gas pipeline. Ashgabat has pre- viously suggested building a 30bn cubic metre per year pipe that could pump gas to southern Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) network. Under last year’s convention, the pair do not need permission from other littoral states to implement the plan. But the project faces other challenges, including high delivery costs, SGC capacity constraints and the increasing reluctance of European buyers to purchase gas under long-term contracts.
There is speculation that Russia’s resump- tion of gas purchases from Turkmenistan earlier this year was aimed at deterring Ashgabat from pursuing trans-Caspian gas exports, which could compete with Russian supplies in Europe. Meanwhile, Russian oil and gas companies Gaz- prom, Rosne and Lukoil have expressed inter- est in entering Turkmenistan’s upstream sector, a senior government o cial told reporters at the Turkmen forum.
“Interest in developing oil and gas elds in Turkmenistan was shown by Rosneft, Lukoil and Gazprom,” Sergei Prikhodko, the rst dep- uty chief of the Russian government’s o ce, was quoted as saying by TASS on August 12.
While eager to attract foreign investment to its o shore zone, Turkmenistan has restricted access to its proli c onshore oil and gas resources to a select few operators. Prikhodko’s statement suggests Moscow is pressing Ashgabat to rethink this policy.
Week 32 13•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7
