Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 43 2022

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Turkmenistan plans to source foreign

investment for Caspian shelf exploration

TURKMENISTAN TURKMENISTAN plans to explore the Turk- of the field.
men part of the Caspian Sea shelf for hydro- “Turkmenistan is continuing the devel-
Turkmenistan considers carbons, deploying foreign investment in the opment of Galkynysh, one of the world's
the development of its process, state-run Neytralny Turkmenistan largest gas reserves, and is laying the fourth
offfshore oil zone as a (Neutral Turkmenistan) newspaper reported branch of the Central Asia-China gas pipe-
priority. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov as saying on line,” Berdimuhamedov was further reported
October 26. as saying.
“The development of licensed offshore blocks Turkmenistan is the largest pipeline gas sup-
of the Turkmen shelf in the Caspian Sea with the plier to China. It pipes gas to China via Uzbek-
help of foreign investments is a priority aspect istan and Kazakhstan. The long-awaited fourth
in the extraction of hydrocarbon resources,” pipeline branch is to be built along a Turkmen-
Berdimuhamedov was quoted as saying at the istan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China
Oil & Gas of Turkmenistan-2022 international corridor.
conference. Turkmenistan has long talked about using the
The president added that the development extra pipeline strand to approximately double its
of Turkmenistan’s southeastern Galkynysh gas natural gas exports to China, which would mean
field was proceeding. China and Turkmenistan increasing supplies to around 65bn cubic metres
lately agreed to jointly develop the second stage annually. ™
NEWS IN BRIEF

peak flow from the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas methane emissions from space have
Orbiting Nasa instrument field blowout near Los Angeles, recorded complained that remote Turkmenistan,
for instance, has not responded to their
as one of the largest accidental methane
detects methane ‘super- releases in US history. enquiries.
Two other large emitters were an oilfield
emitters’ in Turkmenistan and in New Mexico, and a waste-processing SOFAZ assets increased by 0.8%
complex in Iran, emitting nearly 60,000
Iran pounds (29,000 kilograms) of methane per
hour combined. JPL officials said neither
An orbital Nasa instrument has detected were known to scientists before this latest in January-September
large, worldwide emissions of methane, research. The assets of the State Oil Fund of
a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). “Super- The Iran footage shows a plume of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) in January-September
emitters” were identified in countries such methane rising that is at least three miles 2022 increased by 0.8% up to $45.38bn as of
as Turkmenistan and Iran. (4.8 km) long from a major landfill south September 30, the SOFAZ press service said.
In all, the device, called an imaging of Tehran. Methane is a byproduct of "What happened during the three quarters
spectrometer, has exposed more than 50 decomposition at landfills. of 2022 in the global financial markets
methane "super-emitters" in Central Asia, "Some of the plumes EMIT [Nasa's also affected the investment portfolio of
the Middle East and southwestern US Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation] SOFAZ. Thus the high inflation observed
since it was installed in July aboard the detected are among the largest ever seen – in the global economy, the deepening of
International Space Station, Nasa said on unlike anything that has ever been observed geopolitical tensions and the incomplete
October 26. Methane commonly pours out from space," said Andrew Thorpe, a JPL recovery of the China-US trade chain
of sprawling oil and gas facilities and large research technologist leading the methane are among the leading risks in financial
landfills. studies. markets, and these factors have a negative
Examples of newly imaged methane In comparison to CO2, which remains impact on the value of financial assets," the
super-emitters discovered by the in the atmosphere for centuries, methane fund said in a statement.
spectrometer were presented by Nasa’s Jet remains for only about a decade. Achieving According to SOFAZ, the anti-
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), shortly before decreases in methane emissions thus has inflationary measures of the US Central
news broke that the EU seems set to break a more immediate influence on global Bank, including a significant increase
its promise to cut methane emissions by warming. in interest rates, were larger and earlier
30% by 2030.. They included a cluster of 12 Nasa said EMIT might uncover hundreds compared to other countries, providing
plumes from oil and gas infrastructure in of methane super-emitters before its year- additional support to the demand for the
Turkmenistan, with some plumes stretching long mission finishes. US dollar and, as a result, this caused a
more than 20 miles (32 km). Scientists The trick is getting governments to act significant depreciation of the exchange
estimated the plumes collectively spew to shut down the emissions once they have rates of other countries against to the
methane at a rate of 111,000 pounds (50,400 been identified. In recent years, scientists dollar. "As in the investment portfolios
kilograms) per hour. Such a rate rivals the working for other projects monitoring of many institutional investors, including

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