Baku, Azerbaijan, March 12
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Russian oil company, Lukoil hopes to discover new hydrocarbon reserves in Uzbekistan, the head of company Vagit Alekperov said, Trend reports via RIA Novosti.
"Currently, the company has signed an agreement to explore the colossal territory of Karakalpakistan - this is the north-west of Uzbekistan. We hope that it will be possible to make discoveries on this territory so our projects will continue to have the dynamics of development," he said.
Alekperov stated that the company believes in Uzbek economy and in the policy pursued by the president of Uzbekistan, and expects to mitigate the situation with sanctions at the expense of import substitution.
The head of Lukoil noted that today Uzbek economy is developing very dynamically not only in the field of hydrocarbons, but also in the field of non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy and agriculture.
The gas project "Kandym-Khauzak-Shady-Kungrad" is being implemented in Uzbekistan by Lukoil (participation share - 90 percent) alongside with Uzbekneftegaz (10 percent). The parties began negotiations on the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) in the spring of 2001; the agreement was signed in June 2004, entered into force in November 2004.
The PSA provides for the extraction of natural gas and gas condensate in the Bukhara-Khiva district in the south-west of Uzbekistan and geological exploration in the Ustyurt region (Karakalpakistan, north of Uzbekistan). The term of the PSA is 35 years, until 2039.
Lukoil will produce one fifth of the total gas produced in Uzbekistan. The total accumulated production in the project may exceed 200 billion cubic meters of gas.
The total investment for the period of the project is more than $3 billion.
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