BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.26
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The memorandum of understanding recently signed by Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on joint exploration and development of Dostlug oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea is a precedent for potential interconnections in the Caspian Sea, Trend quoted Brenda Shaffer, senior advisor for energy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), as saying.
“This is a really important development for the Caspian Sea region. This is a right idea to start exploration and production from the field. It is a precedent also for other potential interconnections and energy trade between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, maybe not a full Trans Caspian pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, but an intra-Caspian pipeline between some of their fields that could essentially allow Turkmen hydrocarbon to get to the West,” she told John Batchelor show.
Dostlug is a new name of the field that is located on the border of Azerbaijani and Turkmen sectors of the Caspian Sea. It was known as Kepez in Azerbaijan and Sardar in Turkmenistan. The negotiations on the joint development of the field were held before.
Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the public relations and events department at SOCAR, earlier told Trend that during the Soviet period, Azerbaijani specialists carried out exploratory works there, which show that this field is similar to Karabagh field in terms of reserves.
“It is an oil and gas field and we suppose that its reserves can be approved by carrying out modern methods of seismic exploration and probably, exploratory drilling. It is necessary to outline many technical and commercial issues related to the future development of this field. The memorandum is the first step towards reaching this goal. At the same time, it is a new milestone in the history of development of Azerbaijan’s relations with neighboring Turkmenistan, which is a brotherly country from the ethnic and confessional viewpoint. There is a great potential for the development of relations between our countries in the oil and gas industry. In this regard, the new name of our joint project, Dostlug, which means “friendship”, is symbolic,” he added.
Ahmadov went on to add that Azerbaijan has already made a certain contribution to this project by discovering the field. “We have infrastructure and pipelines in the Caspian Sea, oil and gas pipelines, linking the region with European markets and other regions. This would allow to save a part of the expenditures necessary for transportation of the extracted product to the international markets.”
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