Uzbekistan, Gazprom To Cooperate Further
State Uzbekneftegaz and Russian gas giant Gazprom signed an agreement on strategic cooperation last week, following their gas supply deal two months ago.
The parties jointly will carry out geological prospecting, extraction, processing and storage of hydrocarbons, reported Uzbek newspaper Gazeta.uz. It said a document was signed June 3 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum by Gulomzhon Ibrahimov, Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister and Uzbekneftegaz CEO and the Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
Earlier this March, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev discussed with Miller projects of mutual interest to develop oil and gas in Uzbekistan, under the country's adopted program to step up production during 2017-2021.
Then on April 4, Ibrahimov held talks in Moscow with Miller, with Mirziyoyev present, at which Gazprom signed a short-term gas purchase agreement with Uzbekistan to buy 4bn m³/yr for five years starting in 2018. Last year Uzbekistan increased gas sales to China in 2016 by 2.8 times to 4.34bn m3.
According to official data, Gazprom is already actively involved in the implementation of large projects to conduct geological exploration and development of promising hydrocarbon fields in Uzbekistan, as well as in the export of natural gas. In partnership with the Russian company, large-scale geological exploration was carried out at Ustyurt (Karakalpakia), which resulted in the discovery of the Jel gas condensate field. The Shakhpakhty field is being jointly developed, and by now more than 3.5bn m3 of gas has been produced there.
Azerbaijan Desk