(AFP/Getty Images) The Financial Times is reporting that an independent audit of Turkmenistan’s much lauded South Iolatan field has been completed, confirming it as one of the five largest deposits of natural gas in the world, boasting reserves more than twice the size of Russia’s (in)famous Shtokman Field in the Barents Sea. Jonathan Stern of Oxford tells the FT that the field could take a long time to develop, and that “for now, the race for Turkmenistan’s gas is between Russia and China.” Europe, as usual, is an unfortunate non-entity here.