Baku, Azerbaijan, April 9
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Implementation of the Early Gas program has begun at the “25 Years of Independence” field, the first stage of which involves drilling exploratory wells, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan.
Surhan gas chemical operating company LLC (SGCOC), established by a consortium of investors with the participation of the Gas Project Development Central Asia (GPD, a subsidiary of Gazprom International), began exploratory drilling in the Surkhandarya region under a production sharing agreement (PSA).
As Trend reported earlier, SGCOC signed a contract with the international service group Eriell for the construction of fifteen exploration and appraisal production wells at the field.
In March, the operator completed 3D field seismic surveying on an area of 160 square kilometers and proceeded to 2D seismic in the amount of 400 running kilometers, the ministry said. The contractor is BGP Inc., a division of China National Petroleum Corporation.
In April 2017, the government signed PSA with a consortium of investors - GPD, Altmax Holding Ltd and JSC "Uzneftegazdobycha" (part of Uzbekneftegaz JSC) on the investment block "Independence of Uzbekistan" with exploration and development of the gas field "25 years of independence" and with the construction of a gas processing complex.
In October 2018, the parties identified the commercial terms of the project, as well as the creation of a single investor, Suhran Investments Limited to attract project financing.
The project is assumed to be implemented in two stages.
In the first stage, it was planned to drill wells, field development and exploration work on the investment block, construction of infrastructure and a gas processing plant with a capacity of 5 billion cubic meters during 2018-2022.
The cost of the first stage is estimated to be more than $2 billion.
At the second stage, from 2023 to 2025, it is planned to build a gas-chemical complex for the production of polymer products in the amount of up to 500,000 tons per year with the deep processing of commercial gas.
All PSAs for the development of the gas field "25 years of independence" with the construction of a gas processing facility are estimated at $5.8 billion.
The project is designed for 35 years.
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