At a sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan held last Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Batyr Amanov reported on the work carried out to improve the material and technical base of the supervised structures, in particular, the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation.

The respected President Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted that ensuring stable productive activity in the oil and gas sector was directly related to the modernization of its infrastructure on an innovative basis and the introduction of modern resource-saving technologies into the industry. Referring to the activities of the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation, the head of state instructed to continue comprehensive work on the accelerated industrial development of new promising areas and to increase the effectiveness of geological exploration.

The most important task facing the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation today is to increase the volume of natural gas production through increasing new oil and gas fields and their development. In this regard, the introduction of new technologies and scientific research in prospecting activities is of particular topicality. 

The Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation carries out a large amount of geological, geophysical and drilling work. Thanks to its activities, a large number of prospective oil and gas structures have been discovered in the depths of Turkmenistan, and the existence of huge explored and promising resources has been proven.

At the same time, the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation has great opportunities for the further exploration of the gas- and oil-bearing territories of Turkmenistan. The key aspects of the Corporation’s activities are the effective seismic exploration in areas rich in hydrocarbon resources, the prospecting and development of new oil fields and search for scientifically based solutions for increase in groundwater and solid ore resources and other existing issues in this area.

The production divisions of the Corporation, its information and laboratory centers are equipped with the most advanced technology. The Geophysical Service has field expeditions and a processing center equipped with the most modern field seismic and gravity survey instruments and processing and interpretation complexes, which allow performing various research and design work at a high level.

The work of the Corporation resulted in 3D seismic surveys in Eastern Turkmenistan (fields Galkynyş, Ýaşlar and others) and in South-Western Turkmenistan (fields Akpatlawuk, Körpeje and others). The research carried out there made it possible to explore and develop new, deep-seated promising structures with large forecast resources of oil and gas and to develop a system of exploration methods aimed at detecting previously unidentified structures.

As a result of the use of advanced technologies, the gas-bearing part of the territory of the Galkynyş field has been expanded. Now this work successfully continues. It should be reminded that the Galkynyş field, which is currently at the stage of pilot operation, has unique gas resources, that, together with the nearby deposits of Ýaşlar and Garaköl, are estimated at 27.4 trillion cubic meters. Due to the large area and gas resources, a strategy for the phased development of this field has been adopted, and each stage, in turn, is being developed in the context of specific projects. 

The implementation of the goals set is facilitated by research and design work in the field of geological exploration. According to the recommendations and with the direct participation of scientists, the specialists of Türkmengeologiýa discovered more than 30 deposits and new fields, including Döwletabat, Malaý, Ýaşlar and Galkynyş. The Corporation plans to increase the number of 3D field seismic crews, in which the quality of geophysical surveys and information content will be achieved through the use of new geophysical equipment and state-of-the-art software for processing and interpreting geological and geophysical data.  

Due to the reliable supply of proven natural gas resources for many years, the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation has recently focused the main volume of exploration work on the search for oil fields, especially in the Miocene fields in the south-western part of the country and Jurassic-Cretaceous deposits in the central one. 

In Turkmenistan, almost the entire land area is considered as promising for oil and gas. The possibilities of the subsoil are estimated to a depth of 7 kilometers. They are associated with Neogene, Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits. It is necessary to study the prospects for the oil and gas potential of the pre-Jurassic deposits, where commercial discharges of sulfur-free natural gas were previously obtained from carbon deposits in the Tarimgaýa area in the north of Turkmenistan. More deeply-lying highly promising horizons of the Pliocene-Miocene complexes, in the future, Mesozoic deposits in the south-west and Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits in the central, eastern and south-eastern parts of the country are more and more actively included in the prospecting and exploration. The Corporation is searching for hydrocarbons not only in the land of Turkmenistan, but also on the Caspian shelf itself. And this, in turn, increases the attractiveness of foreign investments in the development of promising licensed blocks.

Exploration wells often have to be drilled at greater depths in difficult mining and geological conditions. Solving the problems of penetrating into and developing deep-lying horizons is unthinkable without the widespread introduction of modern achievements in science and technology, especially since new deposits are often associated with complex fields. Therefore, the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation is gradually introducing new developments in the field of equipment and technology for drilling deep wells. 

For example, the use of new technologies in practice, in combination with the application of modern top drive units, made it possible to reduce the time for the construction of wells and to significantly reduce their cost. In order to fulfill these tasks, specialists of the Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation are working to conclude contracts for the supply of necessary equipment and training local specialists in new equipment and modern technologies. 

The Türkmengeologiýa State Corporation is also developing mutually beneficial cooperation with foreign companies. Today, there is great interest in partnerships with Turkmenistan, and the reasons for this are the colossal energy potential of our country, which occupies one of the leading positions in the world in terms of hydrocarbon resources, and the constructive initiatives of the Turkmen party to ensure global energy security. 

The implementation of the plans and measures outlined by specialists will allow geologists to increase the efficiency of exploration work and to strengthen the mineral resource base of Turkmenistan.