President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov discussed the prospects for partnership in the oil and gas industry and the implementation of joint projects with the head of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev. This is the second visit of the head of SOCAR to Ashgabat in the last month.

As reported in today's issue of the “Neutral Turkmenistan” newspaper, issues related to the exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources of the “Dostluk” field in the Caspian Sea were the subject of a thorough discussion.

Let us remind you that the “Dostluk” field, the reserves of which, according to experts, are estimated at 50 million tons of oil, has been considered controversial for many years. Earlier it was called “Serdar” from the Turkmen side, and “Kapaz” from the Azerbaijani side.

On January 21 of this year, the Foreign Ministers of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Ashgabat on joint exploration and development of this hydrocarbon field, on the basis of which a draft of the relevant bilateral Agreement is currently being developed.

As noted, the signing of this historic document was an important event from the point of view of further strengthening and development of the Turkmen-Azerbaijani cooperation in the field of energy in the Caspian Sea. In addition, new opportunities for joint work are opening up and additional incentives are being created to attract large foreign investment to the region on a long-term basis.

“Paying great attention to the issues of introducing advanced experience and high technologies into the fuel and energy complex, as well as the latest scientific and technical developments, our country is always open for mutually beneficial partnerships with leading foreign companies,” the head of state noted.

In turn, the head of the Azerbaijan State Oil Company stressed that the oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan is developing at a dynamic pace, large-scale projects are being implemented in this area. In general, all this serves as a good basis for productive joint work of specialists from the two countries.

Earlier it was reported about the intentions of the Russian oil company “Lukoil” to take part in the development of the Turkmen-Azerbaijani field “Dostluk” in the Caspian Sea.