DUSHANBE, November 5, 2014, Asia-Plus -- The board (Shuro) of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament has set up a working group to draft the law on oil and gas.  The group members include parliamentarians, experts and specialists from relevant ministries and agencies.

MP Ismoil Talbakov, who heads the working group, says a draft oil and gas law was worked out by a group of deputies of the Majlisi Namoyandagon three years ago and it has already been studied by the government and the relevant ministries and agencies.  The group members were reportedly studying experiences of Russia and Turkmenistan while drafting the law.

“Today, one may say with certainty that the draft law has been endorsed on the whole and the government has offered more than 30 amendments to improve it, and the working group is currently studying these amendments,” the parliamentarian noted.

According to him, the draft oil and gas law will be submitted for consideration to the parliament before the end of November this year.

“The adoption of this law will allow Tajikistan to minimize its influence from oil and natural gas of neighboring countries,” said Talbakov.  “Besides, the law will speed up the process of attraction of foreign investments for development of our oil and gas sector.”

He further noted that the Sargazon field, located in the Danghara district of Khatlon province, had possible gas reserves of more than 30 billion cubic meters.  “Besides, there are more than 36 gas deposits in the Baljuvon district alone,” the parliamentarian noted.

Russian and Turkmen specialists say oil and gas deposits are usually found in association with salt domes while there are many salt deposits in Tajikistan, Talbakov added.

Meanwhile, 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 reportedly require considerable expenditure, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at depths ranging from 6.5 to 8 kilometers.