Malaysia Steps Up Caspian Investment

Petronas, the national oil company of Malaysia, plans to invest U.S. $130 million in the exploration of Turkmenistan?s sector of the Caspian Sea shelf this year. This figure is over four times the amount spent last year in the same region.

In 2004 the company plans to drill three new wells. This stems from an agreement with Turkmenistan on exploring and developing three offshore fields, Gubkin, Zhdanov and Livanov. Petronas signed a production sharing agreement with Turkmenistan on the exploration and development of these fields in 1996. The fields? oil and gas reserves are currently estimated at 2 billion barrels and 10 trillion cubic feet respectively.