Uzbekistan, Gazprom To Drill Up To 400 Wells
A Gazprom joint venture with state Uzbekneftegaz has tendered for a contractor to drill up to 400 wells over the next five years.
NaturalGas Stream, which is jointly owned by the Uzbek state producer and Gazprom's subsidiary Gas Project Development Central Asia, announced a tender to select a general contractor for the drilling of oil and gas wells and field development in Uzbekistan.
The turnkey tender specifies the drilling of 254 gas and 168 oil production wells and the development of fields belonging to Uzneftegazdobycha, a subsidiary of Uzbekneftegaz. Deadline for the submission of appeals is October 12, 2017. The joint venture is organising the tender at the Uzbekneftegaz’s behest and fits into the framework of its five-year program of boosting production.
Uzbekneftegaz plans to spend $3.9bn on increasing oil and gas production over the next five years. The programme aims to increase gas production by 53.5bn m3/yr to gas production, condensate by an extra 1.1mn mt/yr, and oil output by 1.9mn mt/yr from the new wells cited by 2022.
Neither the government nor Uzbekneftegaz has publishes oil and gas production statistics since 2012. However according to BP Statistics, Uzbekistan produced 62.8bn m3 sales gas in 2016, about 8.4% more than 2015. Its gas exports were 11.4bn m3 last year.
The NaturalGas-Stream joint venture was established in late 2016 to explore and develop the gas fields in the Ustyurt region, in northwest Uzbekistan.
In April 2017, during the visit of the Uzbek president to Russia, Gazprom and Uzbekneftegaz signed a five-year contract for Russia to buy 4bn m3/yr.
The two companies followed that with signature this June 2 of a strategic co-operation agreement at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum covering gas storage, exploration, to gas for use in vehicles.
The Gazprom joint venture's exploration and production area in Ustyurt region, northwest Uzbekistan (Map credit: Gazprom)
Azerbaijan desk