OREANDA-NEWS. June 30, 2011. ITERA Oil and Gas Company completed the first stage of geochemical explorations for oil and gas in Block 21 the Caspian Sea offshore Turkmenistan.

Igor Makarov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ITERA Oil and Gas Company, pointed out that "the Company was placing emphasis on successful implementation of the promising oil and gas related project in the Caspian Sea shelf we expect to accomplish jointly with Zarubezhneft. We intend to start drilling the first well in 2012".

Pangea, a specialized Russian petroleum service company, was engaged to accomplish geochemical prospecting. The company has extensive experience in this area. It won an open international tender in early 2011 and was successful to accomplish the geochemical research with the use of modern equipment and state-of-the art technologies.

The work in the shelf zone is being done within the frameworks of a Product Sharing Agreement (PSA) and in accordance with an Exploration Plan approved by the State Petroleum Resources Management Agency under the President of Turkmenistan.

The Geochemical Research Plan envisions two stages: the first one is the field work in Block 21, the second one is a laboratory analysis in Russia. A thousand seabed samples have been taken from the license area and a preliminary analysis of 300 samples has been made on board the survey ship. A comprehensive analysis of all samples shall be accomplished in a research laboratory to assess oil and gas prospects of the area.

Geochemical research will allow specifying the scope and priority for 2D/3D studies and, coupled with seismic survey data, will serve to define the location for the first exploratory well in the block. ITERA would have to drill a record-deep (by the measure of Turkmenistan) 7,300 meters exploratory well.