LUKOIL ACQUIRES NEW HYDROCARBON ASSETS
IN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
LUKOIL Overseas (a wholly owned subsidiary of LUKOIL) has reached an
agreement with SoyuzNefteGaz to acquire a controlling interest in a group of
companies that includes SoyuzNefteGaz Vostok Limited, which is a party to the
PSA for the fields in Southwest Gissar and Ustyurt Region in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
There are 8 fields on the contract area with C1 reserves of about 100 billion
cubic meters approved by the State Reserve Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The design volume of
production approximates 3 billion cubic meters per year. The plan is to achieve
this level in 4 years. Gas will be exported through Gazprom`s pipeline
network.
PSA a party to which is SoyuzNefteGaz Vostok Limited was signed on January
23, 2007 for 36 years and came into effect on April 23, 2007. The contract area
is operated by SNG Gissar Limited, operating company that makes part of the
assets to be acquired. Investments required for implementation of the project
will exceed 700 million dollars.
“Republic of
Uzbekistan is one of the
most important regions of international operations for LUKOIL and business
expansion in this country fully meets long-term strategic goals of the company.
We are satisfied with the fact the leadership of Uzbekistan gave
a positive assessment of our activity in the country and approved our
acquisition of the Gissar project”, said Vagit Alekperov, President of
LUKOIL. In this context Yuri Shafranik, Chairman of the Board of
SoyuzNefteGaz, noted: “Volume of our investments in development of fields in
Uzbekistan has already exceeded 70
million dollars. Participation of Russia`s largest oil and gas company having
extensive international experience will ensure its successful
implementation”.
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