18 June 2004 08:46
NBP MAY PROVIDE $90-MLN CREDIT TO UZBEKNEFTEGAZ
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - France's Natexis Banques Populaires may provide Uzbek national holding company
Uzbekneftegaz with a credit of about $90 million to build a compressor station at the Zevardy, Kultak and Pamuk fields
in Kashkardarya region, Uzbekneftegaz Deputy CEO Shavkat Mazhitov told journalists.
"The credit may be provided in June, when the insurance agency Cofas confirms its decision to provide
guarantees," he said.
Mazhitov said that the NBP credit would be the first Uzbek foreign credit for the oil and gas complex to be received
without government guarantees.
The scheme to finance the project was developed with the participation of the French company Sofregaz, which won a
tender held by Uzbekneftegaz in 2002 to build the compressor stations.
In the second half of last year Sofregaz signed a contract with Uzbekneftegaz to carry out engineering work and
supply and install equipment at a total cost of $90 million for the construction of the compressor station.
The compressor station has a capacity of 10 bcm of gas per year and its launch will maintain the necessary pressure
at the fields and keep production at the planned level.
production slipped 0.3% last year to 57.481 billion cubic meters.
Production of oil and gas condensate dropped 0.9% to 7.134 million
The Zevardy, Kultak and Pamuk fields have been under development since the second half of the 1970s and are among the
largest fields in the Uzbek oil and gas complex.
Over the past 10 years 16 investment projects have been carried out in the republic's oil and gas complex using
credits from foreign banks totaling $1.4 billion. All of these credits were provided under Uzbek government
guarantees.
Uzbekneftegaz, the country's oil and gas monopoly, was formed in 1998 and includes eight companies. It is
currently being restructured to attract a foreign investor to its privatization. Uzbekneftegaz gas
tonnes.
[Interfax] |
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