Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 19
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekneftegaz and the Chinese National Oil and Gas Corporation (CNPC) discussed in Tashkent supply of Uzbek natural gas in Winter 2018/2019, as well as supply of Uzbek gas for the fourth line of the Uzbekistan-China gas pipeline, the press-service of Uzbekneftegaz stated.
The Chinese delegation was headed by Vice President of CNPC Hou Qijun.
During the meeting, Qijun stressed that he was looking forward to the results of testing the M15 well at the Mingbulak gas field in Uzbekistan. According to him, this project is personally supervised by Director of CNPC Van Ilin.
The Chinese side also made a proposal to expand investment cooperation in the field of geological exploration on promising investment blocks in Uzbekistan. Following the meeting, further actions of the sides on all the above issues of bilateral investment cooperation were determined.
It was earlier reported that the Central Asia-China gas pipeline, supplying gas from Turkmenistan to China, is nearing its capacity in current design and Beijing may be seeking additional gas supplies.
In this regard, Bruce Pannier, expert on Central Asia, told Trend that lines A, B, and C of the Central Asian pipeline network are nearing capacity but there are plans for line D, which is behind schedule and probably at least four or five years away from completion.
According to the expert, line D would add another 25-30 billion cubic meters of gas.
Earlier, Pannier also told Trend that Beijing will fund most of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, since one of the main goals for China is having a rail link to the Mingbulak oil field in Uzbekistan’s section of the Ferghana Valley that Chinese companies (CNPC) are helping to develop.
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