While Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan understandably garner most of the attention related to Central Asia’s hydrocarbon reserves, New Eurasia recently offered an intriguing look at Kyrgyzstan’s potential in the sector, particularly efforts of one company – Manas Petroleum – in the Ala-Too range.  While the overall quantities (relative to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) may be small, they could have an important impact on Kyrgyzstan’s impoverished economy.  As the article notes,

“…Having secured six exploration licenses in the Ferghana basin, the company hopes to strike more oil the deeper it drills. The reasons for their optimism are fairly straightforward:

•   The Ferghana basin is home to several already producing oil fields, most of which lie on the Uzbek side of the border.

• Soviet geologists drew up extensive studies during the 1980s, but the dissolution of the empire stalled further work on Kyrgyzstan’s side of the border.

• The Tarim basin in China is similar to the Ferghana basin in geological make-up. While the already developed Ferghana deposits are situated in moderate depths, the Chinese were most successful below extensive layers of salt, leading to the unlocking of some 16 billions barrels of recoverable oil….”