Turkmenistan test encouraging oil strike

This paper reports that another former Soviet central Asian republic has reported a highly encouraging oil strike that provides hope for halting or even reversing a long decline in its oil production. Turkmenistan reported it completed a well flowing more than 1,300 b/d in the central part of the Kara-Kum desert. Saparmurad Niyazov, the republic's president, recently predicted black gold will become one of our nation's main riches. The Turkmenistan discovery follows a huge oil strike in neighboring Uzbekistan's sector of the Fergana Valley. A blowout last march near the Uzbek town of Mingbulak reportedly flowed 62,000 b/d to as much as 146,000 b/d from about 17,000 ft with a pressure of 10,300 psi. Uzbekistan is counting on that discovery to improve its oil production prospects immensely