Exxon Mobil to Open Turkmenistan Office in Race for Central Asian Reserves

Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to open an office in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, this year as it vies for access to oil and gas in the resource rich Central Asian nation.

“Exxon Mobil is interested in pursuing upstream opportunities in Turkmenistan,” Patrick McGinn, a spokesman for the Irving, Texas-based company, said in an e-mail.

Turkmenistan has opened up talks with international investors after President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov came to power in 2007, following the death of the isolationist Saparmurat Niyazov.

The central Asian nation may hold the world’s fourth- largest natural gas reserves, according to BP Plc data.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow sbierman1@bloomberg.net.

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