Baku, Azerbaijan, July 16
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
The Russian oil and gas company LUKOIL will continue to remain the dominant international operator in Uzbekistan's oil and gas sector in the coming years, Ashley Sherman, principal analyst, Caspian & Europe Upstream oil and gas, at Wood Mackenzie, told Trend on July 16.
He reminded that 2017 was a year of milestones for LUKOIL, with launch of new gas processing facilities at both of the company’s projects: Kandym and Southwest Gissar.
Sherman added that LUKOIL will handle as much as 30 percent of total Uzbek gas production by the next decade.
On top of that, according to the analyst, it may generally prove more difficult to attract new entrants into the upstream in Uzbekistan due to existing investors deepening their role in the Uzbek energy sector.
A source in the Russian company earlier told Trend that LUKOIL is planning to produce 14.6 billion cubic meters of gas in Uzbekistan In 2018, which is 60 percent more compared to 9.09 billion cubic meters in 2017.
The company is currently conducting gas production in Uzbekistan within the framework of two Production Sharing Agreements on Kandym-Khauzak-Shady (KHSh) and Gissar gas deposits.
In April 2018, LUKOIL commissioned the Kandym gas processing complex (KGPC) located in the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan.
Earlier, in March 2018, the company opened the first gas station in Uzbekistan and the whole Central Asian region under the LUKOIL brand in Tashkent.
Pavel Zhdanov, Director for Capital Markets Operations, Acquisition and Sale of LUKOIL Assets, said earlier that LUKOIL is satisfied with implementation of projects in Uzbekistan and plans to reach the design the level of gas production.
In January-May 2018, Uzbekistan produced 466 thousand tons of gas, which is 0.6 percent more than in the same period in 2017.
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