Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow recently met with officials to discuss his country's oil and gas industry. His verdict? Turkmenistan looks to the future with confidence and is already preparing for a post-crisis surge in global energy consumption.
"Even when there is crisis and consumption of oil and gas is declining, one should not listen to those who call for cuts in oil and gas extraction," he said, adding, "The crisis is developing by its own rules, and in the end, the recession will be replaced by a rise, when huge volumes of energy resources will be needed. The winners will be those countries which have been prepared for this surge."
The president also expressed confidence that the strategic program of development of the oil and gas industry until 2030 would be implemented. Under this document, by then, the country is expected to have raised extraction of gas to 250 billion cu m and oil to 100 million tonnes.
Officials fired
The president's remarks came amid a crisis in his country's oil and gas industry, too. He fired nearly all the country's top oil and gas officials on Oct. 14, accusing them of waste and inefficiency in developing the nation's oil and gas resources.
"As a result of the irresponsible attitude toward their work shown by some industry leaders, our government has not received the expected result," Berdymukhamedov told government officials.
He reserved particularly sharp criticism for the decline in oil production and the failure to extend the gas network to several residential areas across the country.
"Instead of oil production going up, it is in constant decline," he said.
"Foreign companies that work in our country under the same conditions, but that use modern technology and equipment, operate twice as efficiently as (state oil company) Turkmenneft."
Possible fraud
Dismissed in the industry shake-up were Mineral Resources Minister Annaguly Deryayev; head of state gas company Turkmengaz, Dovlet Mommayev; and state oil company Chairman Orazdurdy Khadzhimuradov.
Other reports detail the events leading up to their dismissal, saying that various officials had "grossly overestimated" the deposits of gas in the South Yolatan field, which Turkmen authorities had called "a super giant."
After close scrutiny, however, it surfaced that Turkmen auditors had overstated the field's gas deposits by at least three times, either by mistake or deliberately.
Such revelations could put a dent in the world's perception of Turkmenistan. It is very much to the credit of the Turkmen president for heading off what could have been an even greater embarrassment—fraud even—down the road.
The officials fired by Berdimuhamedow were expected to address investors at an oil and gas conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, next month.
Chalk one up for Turkmenistan's truthful president.
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