Lukoil Expands Uzbek Gas Venture
Russia’s Lukoil has raised $500mn in a five-year unsecured loan to finance development of the Gissar gas/condensate fields in Uzbekistan.
Soyuzneftegaz Vostok, wholly-owned by Lukoil, is the borrower under the loan priced at LIBOR+3.0%. The lenders comprise Italy’s Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, Russia’s VTB, ING of the Netherlands, Japan’s Mizuho Bank, France’s Natixis and Austria’s Raiffeisenbank, said Lukoil November 15.
The Production Sharing Agreement on the Gissar project was signed in January 2007 (Photo credit: Lukoil)
First gas from Gissar – from the Djarkuduk and Yangi Kyzylcha fields - was commissioned in December 2011 as a part of 'early gas' stage. The Gissar block reached its target production level of more than 1.1bn m3/yr in 2012. Under its 'full development' stage in 2017, Lukoil plans to launch Djarkuduk complex gas treatment unit with capacity of 4.4bn m3/yr, allowing the venture to reach its target full production level.
Separately, Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov met the governor of Russia’s Tyumen region Vladimir Yakushev on November 15. A cooperation agreement was signed between the company and the Tyumen industrial university.
Mark Smedley