Erdogan: We are ready for cooperation with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on Dostlug field 

"We are ready for cooperation with our Turkmen and Azerbaijani brothers on the "Dostlug" field in the Caspian Sea," the President of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said at the expanded meeting with the Azerbaijani and Turkmen Presidents held on December 14, Report informs.

Erdogan also touched upon the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor for Europe: "The importance of energy security and diversification of sources has been re-understood for the whole world, especially Europe. Basically, as Turkiye, we have been taking steps in this direction for a long time. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor stand out from this point of view. We transport Caspian gas to Europe through this corridor, which forms the backbone of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP)."

The Turkish President also emphasized that there is a need to start working on the transportation of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Western markets in the same way.

The field, which is called "Kepez" by Azerbaijan and "Sardar" by Turkmenistan, and has rich oil and gas reserves, is located on the sea border of the two countries. During the USSR, the field was discovered by Azerbaijani oilmen in a layer 4 kilometers deep, and in 1989, the first exploratory well was drilled there.

As it was located in the middle of the sea border between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, it was not possible to develop it for many years, and successive negotiations were held on the issue.

On January 21, 2021, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev had a significant breakthrough by co-signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore and develop the field jointly.