LUKoil plans to ship up to 80% of natural gas produced in Uzbekistan to China, Vice President of the company Sergey Nikiforov said on Thursday.
“Our gas is for export only in two directions; the main one is the Chinese direction and there is also the north direction to Kazakhstan and Russia. Most of the gas (about 60-70% now, and 80% after the growth of production) goes to China, and the rest goes in the northern direction,” he noted.
According to Nikiforov, the entire gas condensate produced in the country, which is about half a million tons, is bought by the Bukhara oil refinery, where it is processed and goes to the domestic market. He also added that next year at the facilities of LUKoil in Uzbekistan are planned to extract about 18 bcm of gas.
The Russian private company produced 9 bcm of gas in Uzbekistan last year (4.2 bcm was exported to Russia, and 2.56 bcm to China). According to the plans, in 2018 it is planned to produce 14.7 bcm of gas.
The largest project of LUKoil in Uzbekistan is the Kandym group of deposits. According to the company’s Vice President, the Kandym gas processing complex will be released to the maximum production mark of 8 bcm in June.
“The production level of 8 bcm of gas will last for 9-10 years. But even after that, the plant will be supplied with gas as there are satellite deposits around Kandym. The company intends to return the funds invested in gas projects in Uzbekistan (over $ 10 billion) no later than in 2022,” Nikiforov said.
Let’s note that on April 19 LUKoil commissioned the Kandym gas processing complex (KGPC) located in the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. At the Kandym group of fields 77 wells have already been drilled.
