Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Turkmen President believes that the number of countries that are realizing the importance of Turkmenistan's international initiatives in energy, transport, and environment is increasing.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov made the remarks on January 11 at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

"This creates favorable conditions for expanding and intensifying bilateral relations," the president said. "The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution titles 'Reliable and stable transit of energy resources and its role in ensuring sustainable development and international cooperation' in May 2013, initiated by Turkmenistan."

President Berdymukhamedov also noted that the number of supporters for Ashgabat's views on the key issues of global development is steadily growing, shown by the fact that more than 70 countries acted as co-authors of the resolution on the security of energy transit.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed Turkmenistan's initiative to ensure energy security in September 2013. A meeting of international experts on the subject is planned to be held in Ashgabat in early 2014.

The Turkmen president went on to say that the management of the country's fuel and energy sector should concentrate its efforts on operating open fields, in particular the industrial development of the Galkynysh gas field.

"It is necessary to increase oil production, and ensure the necessary volumes of natural gas and its supply to foreign countries according to the signed contracts," the president said. "It is also necessary to continue increasing production and export supplies of liquefied gas."

Berdymukhamedov also noted the importance of taking concrete actions to complete the construction of the bitumen production enterprise, the planned oil and gas pipelines.

Turkmenistan's giant Galkynysh field, located in Turkmenistan's Mary province, is considered the second largest deposit in the world, with reserves of 26.2 trillion cubic meters. Thanks to the opening of the Galkynysh gas field, the total proven reserves and potential hydrocarbon resources of Turkmenistan have significantly increased.

Turkmenistan, which is rich with hydrocarbon reserves, is one of the key players in the energy market in the resource-rich Caspian region. The Central Asian state has the world's fourth largest natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran, and Qatar. It produces about 70-80 billion cubic meters of gas a year.

Ashgabat believes that the coordinated actions of the producing countries, transit countries, and consumer countries that are capable of optimizing economic development are required in the modern conditions.