Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 6
By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:
An Uzbek-Chinese joint venture has launched production of natural gas at the Khojasayat site of the Karakul investment block, Uzbekneftegaz said in a statement.
The Uzbek-Chinese joint venture New Silk Road Oil & Gas Company is the operator of the project on ‘Arranging the Khojasayat section of the Dengizkul deposit, Khojadavlat and Sharky Alat fields of the Karakul investment block, located in Bukhara-Khiva region’.
In the near future, the JV plans to launch arranging the Khojadavlat and Sharky Alat fields, drill 8 new wells, perform major repairs of three previously drilled wells, and lay 43 kilometers of the gas pipeline.
Following the full completion of this project, the annual production of natural gas will amount to 1 billion cubic meters, which will be directed for export. About 6,500 tons of gas condensate will be directed for sale on the domestic market.
In 2006, China National Oil Development Corporation (CNODC, part of the CNPC structure) signed an agreement with Uzbekneftegaz for geological exploration at five investment blocks within the Ustyurt, Bukhara-Khiva and Fergana oil and gas regions during five years. To implement the project, an operator - CNPC Silk Road Group was created.
In 2011, the Chinese company fully completed the geological exploration program in the amount of 8.9 million linear kilometers of 2D seismic and 1 million kilometers of 3D drilling with 13 exploration wells. The total investment amounted to $260.2 million. As a result, three fields, promising for industrial gas production, were discovered on the Karakul block.
In 2013, Uzbekneftegaz and CNODC created on a parity basis a JV New Silk Road Oil & Gas Company Ltd for arrangement of gas condensate fields Dengizkul, Khojadavlat and Sharky Alat (Karakul investment block), opened by a Chinese investor in the course of their own exploration.
Initially, the implementation of the project for development of these fields was planned to begin in 2014, then in 2015 and 2016, but these plans could not be realized.
Uzbekistan intends in 2017 to increase gas production by 1.5 billion cubic meters. Last year, 55 billion cubic meters of gas was produced in the country.