Turkmenistan looks to gas expansion

A new focus on the energy sector aims to boost both the domestic economy and exports

Turkmenistan holds the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves, but most of them remain undeveloped. The authorities now want to upgrade domestic and export infrastructure to make the country a major gas supplier. But a reluctance to open Turkmenistan up to foreign investment could restrain expansion plans. The Turkmen leadership has so far declined to follow the example of countries like Azerbaijan in signing major production-sharing agreements (PSA), allowing the energy majors to invest in the upstream. The country produces around 70bn m3/yr of gas and 260,000 bl/d of oil. Turkmenistan's most important gasfields include Galkynysh, with over 24tr m 3 of gas in place, along with Yashlar-