Last week, the “Avaza” National Tourist Zone hosted VI International Gas Congress of Turkmenistan the agenda of which included the issues of global energy cooperation and global energy security. Extensive participation in the Congress of representatives of governmental institutions of separate countries and world’s largest companies proficient in the gas/oil businesses speaks in favour of the ever-growing interest of business circles of the planet in interaction with Turkmenistan which is one of the richest energy powers possessing the enormous inshore and offshore reserves of hydrocarbon resources, over 70 % of which fall to the share of the natural gas. Besides, participation of about 400 foreign representatives of over 150 companies from thirty countries of the world in the high level sectoral forum and timed-to-the-forum exhibition has reinforced the Turkmenistan’s generally recognized image of an important international platform for discussing key trends of cooperation in the gas sphere, the issues of diversification of export routes of hydrocarbon raw materials, investment cooperation , development of the national and regional gas-transport infrastructure. In particular, the Congress participants underlined in their papers that the development of enormous reserves of “Galkynysh” super-giant field is one of the most perspective projects of our time. According to independent international expert companies, its natural gas reserves make up 26.2 trillion cubic meters in the maximum amount. The strategy of Turkmenistan envisages an advance planning of the hydrocarbon resources production growth rates with a glance to: the necessary production volumes conditioned by the agreement achieved on construction of the fourth section of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline which will pass through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; preparations for starting the TAPI construction project - Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India gas main; as well as the prospects of gas export to Europe. Besides, the opportunities now available enable to deliver considerable volumes of the natural gas via the operating gas pipelines to Iran and Russian Federation. As expected, heavy stress in the discussions of the Congress was laid on the approaches and constructive proposals related to the TAPI project. In particular, the issue was in the centre of the report made by the State Ministry of Oil and Natural Resources of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Mr. Jam Kamal Khan. Speaking of the historical significance of this large-scale gas pipeline (over 30 BCM annual capacity), the speaker has underlined that realization of the project would invest in strengthening of peace, sustainable development and expansion of cooperation in the Asian region. The 1,800-kilometer TAPI gas pipeline (200-kilometre section via the territory of Turkmenistan; 773 kilometres - via the territory of Afghanistan; and 827 kilometres - through the territory of Pakistan up to the populated area Fazilik on the border with India) is expected to meet the demands for gas of the countries with the population over 1.5 billion people. In the context of key issues of the global economic relations enhancement in the sector, the reports of the Managing Director «Pakistan Petroleum Limited» Sayid Uamik Buhari, Director of the Central Asia Affairs Department of the U.S. State Department Grace Shelton, the Executive Director of the «Oil&Gas Development Company Limited» (Pakistan) Basharat A.Mirza, Director of the Oil and Gas Department of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Poland Malgojati Shimanskii, Chairman of the Board of Governors of «Uzbekneftegaz» company Shokir Fayzullayev, Director of the Board of Governors of «Gas Export» company SOCAR Gagamali Seyfullayev, Director General of the joint stock company «KazTransGaz» Kayrat Sharipbayev, and others aroused great interest among the participants of the International Gas Congress. In the second-day sessions of the Congress, consideration was given to the issues of strengthening the existing and formation of new partnership-based relations for the efficient development of gas resources of Turkmenistan, as well as to the opportunities for diversification of the Turkmen natural gas export. In this connection it was noted that at the expense of its reversible constituent the under-construction «East-West» gas pipeline will enable to ensure over 30 BCM gas deliveries annually from the richest fields to any direction. Not the least significant was the issue of the environment protection. As was noted, the policy pursued by Turkmen leader is directed to ensuring the priority of economic interests, advancing economic activity taking into account the issues of environment protection, rational use of natural resources inclusive. In each of the projects to be realized, special attention is attached to their environmental constituent and ecological safety of new production facilities. The program of the Gas Congress, which was organized by the President-authorized State Concern «Türkmengaz» and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan from the Turkmen side, included numerous business meetings of foreign businessmen with the senior-grade men of Turkmenistan’s oil/gas agencies and concerns devoted to the issues of investment cooperation in the gas sphere. *** The International Industrial Tradeshow was held in the framework of VI International Gas Congress of Turkmenistan in the “Avaza” National Tourist Zone. In addition to the domestic subdivisions of the fuel-energy complex (FEC), the exhibition was attended by dozens of foreign oil and gas companies from different countries of the world, including from Russia, Germany, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Italy, UAE, Iran, etc. During the three-day exhibition which was held in the spacious halls of the “Berkarar” Hotel, the delegates and guests of the Congress were acquainted with the stands of the largest companies and firms, including CNPC (China), Weatherford (USA), Dragon Oil (UAE), LG International Corp, HYUNDAI engineering (Republic of Korea), PETRONAS (Malaysia), Eni (Italy), “TechnoProm” (Russia), and others. Particularly attractive and interesting for the guests and participants of the exhibition were the projects of new deposits development and productive capacity increase of the existing ones. The stands of innovative and resource-saving technologies evoked great interest in the light of Turkmenistan’s gas industry future development and its preparedness to further advance economic cooperation in the name of universal progress. The exhibition also presented the equipment responsible for the reliability and safety of gas pipelines, large-scale construction of which has been deployed in our country.