Myrat Atajanow has been appointed director of Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea Institute, Trend reports referring to a decree by the President of Turkmenistan.
The Caspian Sea Institute was formed by a corresponding decree on the basis of the abolished State Enterprise for the Caspian Sea under the President of Turkmenistan.
Control over the activities of the new institution is entrusted to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.
The Institute was created with the aim of developing cooperation in the Caspian Sea region, analyzing work carried out in various areas, conducting marine scientific research, preparing international legal and national documents related to the Caspian Sea, as well as reviewing the implementation of international treaties on the Caspian in Turkmenistan and preparing a core methodological information, the Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary (TDH) state news agency notes in its commentary.
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdi muhamedov outlined the priorities for cooperation in the energy sector while delivering a speech at the conference entitled “Caspian Sea: in the interests of developing international economic cooperation” in Turkmenistan’s Awaza tourist zone. “In case of effective use, big hydrocarbon reserves in the bowels of the Caspian Sea and adjacent territories may give a strong energy impulse to the dynamic and high-quality growth of the national economies of both the Caspian countries and neighboring countries, as well as ensure the conditions for creating new production enterprises and construction of industrial facilities,” the Turkmen president said.
Some 32 licensed blocks with projected reserves of 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas from the Turkmen part of the Caspian Sea (excluding already contracted blocks) have been put up for an international tender. The project of the transportation of Turkmen gas to Europe in transit via Azerbaijan is also connected with the Caspian Sea. Brussels and Ashgabat are working on preparing a version of the legal framework agreement on future gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Europe. In order to make this feasible, Azerbaijan will have to lay a 300-kilometer gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea, the legal status of which was approved after 20 years of negotiations between the Caspian littoral states last year.
