US, UK-Chinese firms win tenders to Serdar, Gaplan oil fields
On 16 June, Turkmenistan's Competent Body for the Use of Hydrocarbons announced that the US company Mobil and a joint British-Chinese company, Kern Energy-Texuna, have won exploration and development rights to two offshore oil and natural gas fields in the Caspian Sea. Mobil is to develop the Serdar oil field (currently the subject of a territorial dispute between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan), which is believed to hold 150 million to 200 million tons of oil and little or no natural gas. Kern Energy-Texuna won the right to the Gaplan field, which contains an estimated 88 million tons of oil and 132 billion cubic meters of gas.
The companies will not be able to actually begin exploring the fields for another few months, as they must first negotiate production-sharing agreements with the Turkmen government. (Interfax, 1609 GMT, 16 Jun 98; FBIS-SOV-98-167)