Uzbek gas plants in pipeline: GAIL

The Times of India May 8 State-owned gas utility of India GAIL is set to create the first Indian footprint in the Central Asian oil sector with cooking gas plants in Uzbekistan, each of which will have a capacity of producing 100,000 tonnes of the fuel in a year. The plant will be set up in a joint venture with flagship Uzbekneftegaz at a cost of $50-60 million. GAIL and Uzbekneftegaz signed an MoA (memorandum of agreement) during the recent visit of PM Manmohan Singh to Uzbekistan. India's ambassador signed the MoA on behalf of GAIL and Uzbekneftegaz chairman Abdusalom Azizov on behalf of Uzbekneftegaz. The two companies will jointly undertake exploration and production, gas processing, petrochemicals and manpower training. GAIL and Uzbekneftegaz had held preliminary discussions in early March on these projects. Discussions for setting up of the cooking gas plants are expected to be held during the first meeting of the joint working group, which is to be set up in May. Uzbekneftegaz will also provide details of exploration opportunities in Uzbekistan during this meeting. The two companies have already held preliminary discussions on exploration. GAIL has seven cooking gas plants in India with a production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum and contributes 18.96% of the LPG produced in the country. GAIL's 1,900-km LPG pipeline network includes the world's longest exclusive LPG pipeline from Jamnagar to Loni.