RWE surveys waters in Turkmenistan

• Tweet

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- German energy company RWE Dea announced Monday it completed a seismic survey of the Caspian waters off the coast of Turkmenistan.

RWE finished its 4-month, 3-D seismic survey of a 154-square-mile area off the coast of Turkmenistan, the first for an onshore to shallow coastal zone in the region.

Werner Schwarzhans, senior vice president for exploration at RWE Dea, said engineers were "particularly pleased" with the high quality of the data obtained during the survey. The next step, he said, was to review the data to get a general assessment of the hydrocarbon reserves off the coast of Turkmenistan.

"This process is going to take several months before we actually receive detailed information on structures and their location underground," he said in a statement.

RWE received a license to operate in the Caspian waters of Turkmenistan in 2009. Caspian reserves are viewed by members of the European community as a means to break the Russian grip on the regional energy sector.

RWE is a member of the Nabucco pipeline consortium, a pipeline planned to carry natural gas from Caspian suppliers.