Aygozel Sopyeva

PETRONAS Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd

PETRONAS Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd was founded circa 1996 after PETRONAS has been awarded with Block 1 waters, Turkmenistan. In July 1996, Petronas and the government of Turkmenistan signed a 25-year Production Sharing Agreement for the exploration, development and production of offshore Block 1, including the Garagel-Deniz (Gubkin), Deyarbekir (Barinov) and Magtymguly (East Livanov) fields.[i] Block 1 is located approximately 80 km southwest of Turkmenbashi.[ii] This was the first PSA to be awarded by the government of Turkmenistan. That same year, the government of Turkmenistan announced that Petronas planned to invest more than $210 million in its operations. By 2002, Petronas had successfully drilled and tested four wells, indicating vast oil and gas reserves at a high rate of flow. In October 2003, Petronas signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dragon Oil to explore possible areas for collaboration, including "gas development, transmission, marketing and sales of gas, drilling services, and field operations and logistics." In June 2006, "KazTransGas, which is part of Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company KazMunayGas and Turkmenistan-based PETRONAS Charigali Sdn.Bhd, a subsidiary of Malaysian PETRONAS Carigali Overseas Sdn. Bhd,…signed a memorandum of understanding on natural gas transportation from Turkmenistan using Kazakhstan's pipeline network". A press release from KazTransGas stated that "the aim of the memorandum is to determine the definition of the areas and terms of cooperation between the countries in the transportation of natural gas from the future Beregovoi onshore terminal in Turkmenistan via Kazakhstan's operating pipelines MG Okarem-Beineu and MG SAZ-3.