Prague, 19 February 1997 (RFE/RL) - Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov has signed two agreements with foreign companies on large-scale projects in the oil and gas sector. The agreements signed yesterday in Ashgabat are valued at nearly $600 million.
The first agreement is with three Japanese companies to build a facility in Turkmenistan to produce petroleum-based plastics.
The other agreement with a Dutch subsidiary of Israel's Bateman company involves improvements to Turkmenistan's domestic gas-pipeline system. The deal involves investments from companies in South Africa and the United States.