DUSHANBE, March 17, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Gazprom International, an affiliate of Russia’s state-controlled company Gazprom, has presented final reports on the findings of exploration operations carried out at the Sargazon field (Khatlon province) in 2009-2010 to Tajikistan’s Main Geology Directorate.

Gazprom International is specialized in implementation of overseas projects and it is currently carrying out exploration operations in Tajikistan.

The final reports were presented at a meeting of the Scientific-Technical Council of the Main Geology Directorate in Dushanbe on March 15.

An official website of Gazprom International’s office in Tajikistan, in particular, reports that the entire volume of 3d seismic work carried out at the Sargazon field has amounted to 214 square kilometers.

“According to the findings of exploration work, further development of this field at present stage seems to be inexpedient,” the report says.

At the same time, the meeting participants came to a conclusion that new data on the geological structure of the Sargazon field together with the findings of explorations carried out in Soviet times are a scientific and practical foundation for further development of Tajikistan’s geology.

On the same day, Gazprom International representatives visited the wildcat well “Shahrinav-1P” at the Sariqamish field.

Cooperation between the Tajik government and Russia’s state-controlled company Gazprom is regulated by a long-term (till 2028) agreement on strategic cooperation in the gas industry signed between Gazprom and Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy in Dushanbe on May 15, 2003 and a memorandum of intent on launching joint Tajik-Russian enterprises of March 28, 2006.  Gazprom has been working in Tajikistan on providing the beginning of geological explorations since July 2006.

Gazprom has received licenses from the Tajik government to explore four oil-and-gas reserves in Tajikistan: Rengan; Sargazon; Sariqamish; and the Western Shaambari.

The Rengan field, located in the Roudaki district has possible gas reserves of 35 billion cubic meters, and the Sargazon field, located in Khatlon province has possible reserves of 30 billion cubic meters.

Of all the four licensed sites of Gazprom in Tajikistan, Sariqamish is estimated as the most promising.  We will recall that during his visit to Dushanbe, the Gazprom top manager Aleksei Miller noted on December 7, 2010 that on the basis of the seismic surveys they have conducted they understand that the estimated reserves of the Sariqamish field is 60 billion cubic meters of gas.  According to him, this amount is enough to supply Tajikistan for 50 years.

According to expert estimates, the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000 billion tons of reference fuel.  At the same time, production work at oil and gas fields require considerable expenditure, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at depths ranging from 6.5 to 8 kilometers.