Uzbekistan, Tashkent, May 18 / Trend D. Azizov /
China will be a strategic market for Uzbek gas supplies by 2017, LUKOIL vice-president, LUKOIL Overseas Holding president Andrey Kuzyaev said during the international exhibition and conference Oil Gas Uzbekistan 2011, held in Tashkent.
"Today, there are several promising areas of Uzbek gas supplies and one of them is the Chinese direction," he said. "The Chinese market will become a strategic breakthrough for Uzbek gas from 2015 - 2017."
He said that the annual demand for gas consumption in China by 2020 may increase three times up to 250-300 billion cubic meters compared to 2010. The annual imports of Central Asian gas, where the proportion of supplies from Uzbekistan will significantly increase, will reach 50 billion cubic meters during this period.
"We wait for Uzbekistan to sign a contract to supply gas to China," he said. Afterwards, we will begin negotiations on gas supplies from Uzbekistan."
At present, Lukoil operates in Uzbekistan over the implementation of three projects - Kandim-Hawzak-Shadi.