WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- The Caspian energy story for 2008 is the development of Turkmenistan's vast natural gas reserves.

Since the death of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in December 2006, global energy firms have been racing to Ashgabat and the feeding frenzy has both spawned and revived numerous pipeline projects. Among the moribund initiatives is the Trans-Afghan Pipeline, at once the most potentially lucrative and ephemeral of the grandiose visions being promoted. TAP is the perfect epitome of a project where reveries of riches trump geography and political reality, as it would pass through some of the world's most turbulent landscape en route to the dynamic Indian energy market.

What is not at issue is the immensity of Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves, estimated to be the fourth largest in the world, after Russia, the United States and Iran. Extrapolating from Soviet geological data, analysts estimate Turkmen gas reserves at 10 trillion cubic meters to 14 tcm.

But ballpark estimates are not enough to attract massive foreign investment, and Niyazov's successor, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has taken measures to define the country's hydrocarbon resources on Western terms. Six months ago he ordered Vice Prime Minister Tachberdy Tagiev to conduct an audit of the country's hydrocarbon deposits.

"Certifying oil and gas supplies in the country's fields will allow us to clarify our strategy for further developing the use of our hydrocarbon resources and account for the high goals set in the program of development of Turkmenistan's oil and gas industry through 2030 that would promote the development of the mutually beneficial international cooperation in the energy sector," he said.