ASHGABAT - The head of exploration and production at oil company BP met on Thursday with Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, president of the gas-rich Central Asian state of Turkmenistan, official media here said.
Andy Inglis said after the meeting that BP was ready to establish close commercial links with Turkmenistan, a tightly controlled one-party state criticised over its human rights record.
"Turkmenistan is always ready for cooperation on the basis of the principles of trust and mutual profit," Berdymukhammedov said.
Berdymukhammedov took power in February following the death in December of the country's first post-Soviet leader, dictator and president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov.
Berdymukhammedov has pledged to make Turkmenistan more open to foreign investment and has pledged to implement political reform.
Turkmenistan's vast gas reserves are estimated at 2.1 trillion cubic meters.
08/23/2007 19:42 GMT