Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The existing World Bank (WB) portfolio in Turkmenistan focuses on activities that aim to share WBG’s international knowledge, experiences, and best practices, a source in the WB told Trend.
“This program is being delivered, mainly, through the Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS). The government funds this program, however the WBG supplements the program with additional advisory and analytical services using its own funds,” said the bank.
The WBG and Turkmenistan are yet to identify the future program of cooperation, said the source, adding that the details of specific activities and projects will be identified at a later stage.
Regarding the possibility of issuing loan by the World Bank to the further development of Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh gas field, the source said the bank has not been involved in the discussions around the mentioned project.
The source went on to add that the World Bank currently has no lending projects in Turkmenistan.
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has recently ordered to intensify work to attract foreign investment for the development of the Galkynysh gas field.
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, construction of which began in December 2015, originates from this source of raw materials. The head of state instructed to speed up the implementation of the project of construction of this transnational energy bridge.
Galkynysh is the second largest gas field in the world and is already one of the raw sources of Turkmen gas supplies to China. According to independent audit, the reserves of Galkynysh field together with the Yashlar and Garkel fields total to 27.4 trillion cubic meters of gas.
In July 2017, it was announced that in the near future it is planned to start the third stage of the development of Galkynysh field, which will increase the production capacity by another 33 billion cubic meters of commercial gas per year with the expectation of supplies to South Asia.
To date, production facilities of the first stage, with a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of commercial gas per year, have been commissioned here, and in 2014 the second stage with a similar capacity was launched.
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