Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
In the first half of 2018, the Russian LUKOIL oil and gas company increased gas production in Uzbekistan to 6.1 billion cubic meters, which is twice more than in the same period last year, the company said in a message.
A two-fold increase in production was possible due to the launch of new facilities for the preparation of gas production under the Kandym and Gissar projects, according to the message.
At the same time, successful development of projects in Uzbekistan has become the main factor in the growth of gas production by the company abroad. So, in general, LUKOIL extracted 7.1 billion cubic meters of gas abroad, that is, Uzbekistan accounted for about 85 percent of the company’s total production volume.
In general, in the first half of 2018, the company produced 16.1 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 20 percent more than in the first half of 2017.
In the second quarter of 2018, gas production stood at 8.1 billion cubic meters, which corresponds to the level of the first quarter of 2018 in the average daily terms.
In the first half of 2018, Uzbekistan produced 29.34 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 6.3 percent more than in the same period of 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan.
In 2017, LUKOIL produced 9.09 billion cubic meters of gas in Uzbekistan.
In 2018, gas production may grow in Uzbekistan by more than 60 percent compared to last year’s figure and amount to 14.6 billion cubic meters.
Earlier, LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov said that LUKOIL will increase gas production in Uzbekistan to up to 19 billion cubic meters per year in 2019.
In turn, Ashley Sherman, principal analyst, Caspian & Europe Upstream oil and gas, at Wood Mackenzie, told Trend that LUKOIL will continue to remain the dominant international operator in Uzbekistan's oil and gas sector in the coming years.
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