Uzbekistan, Tashkent, March 14 / Trend D.Azizov /
Uzbek President Islam Karimov approved a joint project of the Vietnamese PetroVietnam Exploration & Production (PVEP) on the holding of an exploration in the Ustyurt region in the north-west of the country, a source in the National Holding Company (NHC) Uzbekneftegaz told Trend.
The source referred to the president's order "On measures to implement the agreement to conduct exploration work on the Kosorsky investment unit in the Ustyurt region of Uzbekistan."
As previously reported, PVEP and Uzbekneftegaz signed an agreement on basic principles of a joint study of Ustyurt region in Uzbekistan in February 2010.
The document envisages joint exploration in Ustyurt region (north-west of Uzbekistan).
Under the agreement, the Vietnamese company will get Kosorsky investment unit with total area of 5.500 square kilometers for five years to undertake exploration.
PVEP invests about $30 million to implement this project in 2010-2014.
PetroVietnam and Uzbekneftegaz signed in 2008 an agreement on cooperation in oil and gas in three areas - exploration, oil and gas reserves in new territories, exchange of experts.
PVEP and Uzbekneftegaz signed a memorandum of understanding envisaging study of geological and geophysical information on previously unknown stratigraphic level of Paleozoic rocks within the Bukhara-Khiva region by Vietnamese specialists.
The memorandum was signed in April 2010.The purpose of research is development of the proposed exploration program for oil and gas in this area.
Uzbekistan has 44 investment blocks for exploration by foreign investors. About 21 units have licenses. At present, exploration in Ustyurt was carried out by Russian Gazprom and Lukoil, the Korean Daewoo and KOGAS, China's CNPC and Malaysian Petronas. Total investments of foreign companies in exploration in this region are about $ 700 million.
According to Uzbekneftegaz, as of January 1, 2005 predicted prospective hydrocarbon resources in Uzbekistan amounted to 5.903 trillion cubic meters of gas, oil - 817.7 million tons of oil and 360 million tons of condensate.