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Condor Petroleum to invest over

$1bn in Uzbek gas

UZBEKISTAN CANADIAN oil and gas company Condor Turkey. The company has the largest and most
Petroleum plans to invest over $1bn in the technically advanced 3D seismic data acquisi-
Condor is ready to operation of gas fields in Uzbekistan’s Bukhara tion and processing programme in the Central
operate at least five gas province in 2021-2024, Dunyo news agency has Asia region.
fields. reported. In April, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Cooperation issues were on the agenda of a ordered the government to secure $650mn in
meeting between the Uzbek Ambassador to the loans to finance a programme aimed at boosting
US and Canada Javlon Vakhabov and company the Central Asian nation's natural gas output.
heads, namely chairman of Condor Petroleum The presidential decree instructed the cabi-
Dennis Balderston and the president & CEO net to borrow $250mn from China's Silk Road
Don Streu. Fund and foreign banks, as well as $400mn from
Balderston said that Condor Petroleum was export finance agencies to finance the comple-
ready to invest more than $1bn in the economy tion of the five-year plan launched in 2017.
of Uzbekistan through its own capital invest- Before the pandemic, Uzbekistan was pro-
ments and production costs, and introduce ducing about 60 billion cubic metres of gas a
modern equipment and technologies. In addi- year, part of which was exported to China and
tion, the company intended to create Canadian Russia.
vocational schools in various specialties in Earlier this month, The Economist wrote that
Uzbekistan to train local personnel, as well as Uzbekistan was losing its export potential for
invest in social projects. gas, mainly because of its geographical location
Streum noted that Condor Petroleum is (double landlocked), as well as amid the coro-
ready to operate at least five existing gas fields. navirus-induced economic slowdown observed
According to him, the company has already across importer states.
studied the five producing fields in the town of According to Arild Dyrseth, an international
Gazli in Bukhara region. consultant hired by ADB, international investors
Streum promised to significantly increase the are waiting for the Uzbek gas price to hike.
production and reserves of natural gas in Uzbek- In an interview with the press service of UTG,
istan through the use of innovative solutions and Dyrseth said: "Based on the preliminary results
modern technologies. of the analysis, I can say that the gas industry in
Speaking about expected results, Condor Uzbekistan is not growing at the pace and qual-
Petroleum executives said that a more than ity for which it has the potential, and most likely
twofold increase in gas extraction from existing needs to be reformed in order to become a stable
fields would reduce capital and production costs, and driving force of the national economy. One
as well as dependence on diesel fuel, replacing of the problems is the low domestic gas price,
it with liquefied natural gas (LNG) for power which encourages wasteful gas consumption and
generation, operation of vehicles and heavy jeopardizes the necessary investment in new gas
equipment. supplies and the gas transportation system. This
Condor Petroleum was established in 1994 has led to the fact that the outdated gas transpor-
and has been operating in Central Asia, North tation infrastructure today needs urgent mod-
and South America, Indonesia, Libya, Angola, ernization." ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 14•October•2020