Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Natural Gas Country Notes

Apart from the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan has the largest proved reserves of any of the former Soviet republics: for the present Survey, the level of 2 860 bcm quoted by Cedigaz has been adopted, in preference to the lower figure (2 010 bcm) given by Oil & Gas Journal and OAPEC. (It may be noted that OGJ has subsequently raised its figure to 2 832 bcm as at end-2006).

Cedigaz has stated that Turkmenistan's total gas resources have been evaluated at 22.9 trillion cubic metres. Many gas fields have been discovered in the west of the republic, near the Caspian Sea, but the most significant resources have been located in the Amu-Darya Basin, in the east.

Gas deposits were first discovered in 1951 and by 1980 production had reached 70 bcm/yr. It continued to rise throughout the 1980s, but by 1992 a serious contraction of the republic's export markets had set in and output fell sharply. Natural gas output recovered in 1999, and has since advanced to 63 bcm in 2005. Exports to countries outside the CIS amounted to 8.6 bcm in 2005, of which Iran accounted for 5.8 bcm.