Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Russia's Lukoil produced 13.42 billion cubic meters of gas in Uzbekistan in 2018, Trend reports with reference to the company.
This figure is higher than the numbers of 2017 for 66.7 percent as the company produced 8.05 billion cubic meters of gas in Uzbekistan in 2017.
Growth was achieved due to the launch of new gas treatment facilities for gas production under the Kandym and Gissar projects.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the company produced more than 3.85 billion cubic meters of gas.
Earlier it was reported that Uzbekistan owes Lukoil about $600 million for gas supplies in 2018.
The debt occurred due to the fact that Uzbekistan took part of the gas to the domestic market, although the terms of the PSA envisage the export of all gas produced in Uzbekistan.
Lukoil has invested about $8 billion in projects in the country and has already returned the half of the amount.
Lukoil planned to increase gas production in Uzbekistan to 16 billion by 2020, of which 8 billion cubic meters were planned to be extracted on Kandyma, 5 billion cubic meters on Gissar and 3 billion cubic meters on Khauzak fields.
In April last year, the Kandym gas processing complex (KGPK) was commissioned ahead of schedule in the Bukhara region. The national holding Uzbekneftegaz and LUKOIL participated in the construction of KGPK which became their largest investment project in Uzbekistan. Its total cost was $3.4 billion.
The enterprise will annually process more than 8 billion cubic meters of gas, which will allow producing purified gas, gas condensate, sulfur and other products, providing work for more than 2,000 people.
Uzbek State Statistics Committee stressed that, in 2018, a total of 59.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas was produced in the country, which is 6.1 percent higher than the previous year.
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