Oil and Gas Production in the Amu Dar'ya Basin of Western Uzbekistan and Eastern Turkmenistan

Abstract

The resource base, development history, current output, and future outlook for oil and gas production in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are examined by a Western specialist with particular emphasis on the most important gas-oil province in the region, the Amu Dar'ya basin (see Clarke, 1994). Oil and gas have been produced in both newly independent countries for over a century, but production from the Amu Dar'ya province proper dates from the post-World War II period. Since that time, however, fields in the basin have provided the basis for a substantial natural gas industry (Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan consistently have trailed only Russia among the former Soviet republics in gas output during the last three decades). Despite high levels of current production, ample oil and gas potential (Turkmenistan, for example, ranks among the top five or six countries in the world in terms of gas reserves) contributes to the region's prominence as an attractive area for Western investors. The paper reviews the history a...