Lukoil Boss Revisits Uzbekistan

The president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, hosted the head of Russian oil major Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov, in the capital Tashkent on a working visit, the national news agency reported. They discussed June 28 the issues of implementing current and future projects in the oil and gas industry, UzA said June 29. Lukoil, Russia's biggest privately-owned oil company, is working with state concerns such as Uzbekneftegaz.

Particular attention was paid to new projects aimed at gas processing and co-operation in training personnel. 

The two sides are working jointly on a geological study of the Ustyurt block and the development of oil and gas condensate fields in southwestern Gissar are jointly carried out.

Work is also under way to develop the Kandym fields, building a modern gas processing complex, which, in the near future, will have capacity to treat over 8bn m³/yr. The first stage of the plant is planned to be commissioned in late 2017. The total investment in this project in the first phase is estimated at $3.3bn. The head of LUKoil expressed readiness for further development of full-scale bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas sector.

As reported, LUKoil is working in Uzbekistan on the implementation of two projects on the basis of production-sharing agreements: one for Kandym-Khauzak-Shady and the other at southwest Gissar.

Lukoil has so far produced over 40bn m³ of gas in Uzbekistan and hopes to produce 18bn m³ from the two projects by 2020, by which time it will have spent $8bn there. This compares with $6.3bn so far.

According to BP, Uzbekistan in 2016 reduced oil production by 3.1% compared to 2015 to 2.6mn metric tons, while gas output rose by 8.4% to 62.8bn m³. Of that, it exported 11.4bn m³: 5.6bn m³ to Russia, 4.3bn m³ to China, and 1.5bn m³ to Kazakhstan.

Azerbaijan desk