Interfax
October 23

The Uzbek national holding company Uzbekneftegaz has launched a compressor station at the Shurtan gas condensate field at a cost of $195 million.

Shavkat Mazhitov, the company's chief engineer, said at Wednesday's launch ceremony that the new station, which was built by Israel's Bateman and the U.S. company Dresser-Rand, will extend the operating life span of the field by 20-25 years and will also increase production by 8 million cubic meters per annum.

Mazhitov noted that Uzbekistan invested $1.9 billion in its oil and gas complex in 1992-2003. "At the moment we are ready to implement projects using direct foreign investment of about $2 billion," he said. In particular, major projects have been developed to explore and develop oil and gas fields with the participation of Russia's Lukoil and Gazprom.

Bateman completed the construction of the compressor station at the Shurtan gas condensate field in Uzbekistan's Kashkandarya region in August. The station has a capacity of 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas per annum. This project will make it possible to maintain the necessary bed pressure at the field and increase overall production of natural gas from 15 billion cubic meters per annum at the moment to 20 bcm.

Uzbekneftegaz financed the project using its own funds and credits from foreign banks amounting to $195.21 million, insured by U.S. Ex-Im Bank and the Israeli agency IFTRIC.

The Shurtan field is one of the largest in Uzbekistan. The field has been developed since 1980. The Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex was built at the field in 2001 at a total cost of over $1 billion. The field accounts for 36% of all natural gas produced in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan produces over 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas per annum, of which about 40 billion cubic meters are consumed in the country and the rest is imported to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia.

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