Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 15 2021

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Petronas launches Turkmen

drilling platform

TURKMENISTAN MALAYSIAN oil firm Petronas has launched a equivalent per day (boepd) in 2020, some 65%
new drilling platform at the Block 1 oil project in of which was gas.
the Turkmen waters of the Caspian Sea. Block 1 is one of biggest oil and gas develop-
The locally built Garagol Deniz Drilling Plat- ments in Turkmenistan. First oil was achieved
form (GDDP-A) was commissioned during a in 2006, while gas flow was launched in 2011.
ceremony on April 10, according to Turkmen While the oil is delivered to markets via tankers,
state media. The platform has a 10,000 barrel the gas is processed at a 5bn cubic metre per year
per day capacity, but will be used to exploit the plant near Kiyanly and then sold to Turkmeni-
Garagol-Deniz West field, which is projected to stan’s state-owned Turkmengaz.
flow oil at a rate of only 6,700 bpd. Officials at Petronas have complained in the
First oil is anticipated in August. The supplies past that the geology at Block 1 is “tricky” and it
will be transported to shore via pipeline and then allegedly took until 2010 for oil output to reach
processed before being exported. Associated gas a mere 6,000 bpd. Despite Petronas’ supply deal
will be partly used to generate electricity. with Turkmengaz, the bulk of Block 1’s gas is
The rig was built at an assembly complex in still considered stranded. As such, Petronas has
Kiyanly on Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea shore. Its focused instead on recovering as much oil as
design and construction took eight years. possible.
Petronas has been working in Turkmeni- This said, it has been suggested that the site’s
stan since 1996, when it became the first for- gas could be supplied to Azerbaijan and further
eign investor to sign a production-sharing afield in Europe via a proposed Trans-Caspian
agreement (PSA) to explore the country’s off- pipeline. But the project has been at a standstill
shore zone for oil and gas. Block 1 contains five for decades, because of opposition from Russia
oil and gas condensate fields, with hydrocar- and Iran and an unresolved dispute over the Cas-
bon sales grossing over 100,000 barrels of oil pian Sea's legal status. ™

NEWS IN BRIEF

RUSSIA ratifying the Convention on the Legal respect pre-WWII Soviet-Iranian treaties on
Status of the Caspian Sea, which was signed sovereignty.
Iran poised to ratify three years ago in Aktau, and then this
important document comes into force
Caspian Sea convention it will strengthen the foundation of our Gazprom approves
cooperation in the Caspian Sea," Lavrov
says Moscow reportedly said during a visit to Kazakhstan. feasibility study for Soyuz
Under the terms of the convention, each
Iran is expected to ratify the Convention on littoral state shall have exclusive control Vostok pipe project
the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea in the over an area of the sea extending up to 15
coming weeks, TASS on April 8 reported nautical miles from its shores for mineral The feasibility analysis regarding the
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as and energy exploration, and a further 10 construction project for the Soyuz
saying. miles for fishing. The remaining area is to be Vostok gas trunkline was approved today,
Signed by the Caspian Five countries— shared jointly, pending further negotiations. Gazprom said on April 13. The analysis
Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Following the signing of the convention, was performed by Gazprom within the
Turkmenistan—in August 2018 at the fifth there was something of a backlash in Iran, framework of the comprehensive feasibility
Caspian Summit to address a decades-old with several hardline groups accusing the analysis regarding the project for pipeline
dispute, the convention divides up the Rouhani administration of “selling” Iranian supplies of Russian gas across Mongolia
surface area of the inland sea. Notably, it parts of the Caspian Sea to Russia. to China. The Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline
does not deal with the final status of the There is no evidence that any such deal will become an extension of Russia's Power
all important seabed and its oil and other has been struck but feelings run high in of Siberia 2 gas pipeline in Mongolian
natural resources. Each seabed segment Iran over claims to Caspian Sea territory territory.
is to be dealt with through deals struck given territorial dominance over the waters In the course of the feasibility analysis,
between two or more of the five countries the nation has enjoyed during certain the basic technical and technological
with a Caspian Sea coast, meaning more periods in history. After the dissolution parameters of the project were established.
interminable negotiations may lie ahead to of the Soviet Union in 1991, each country These include the optimal route for the
deliver the final territorial map. bordering the sea submitted fresh claims gas pipeline in Mongolian territory, the
"We expect that Iran will complete to jurisdiction over extensive sections of pipeline's length and diameter, the working
as soon as possible the procedures for the sea, while Russia and Iran continued to pressure, and the number of compressor

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 14•April•2021