Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3 -- Uzbekistan has offered Japanese companies participation in five investment projects connected with the country's oil and natural gas industry, according to first deputy CEO of the Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Shavkat Mazhitov.
Mazhitov told an Uzbek-Japanese business forum in Tashkent on Nov. 2 that Uzbekneftegaz plans to survey the Shumanai and Ashibulak blocks of the Ustyurt region in western Uzbekistan at a cost of some $100 million and would like Japanese participation in the development.
Four other projects offered to the Japanese include production of synthetic liquid fuel from natural gas, the introduction of oil sludge technology, construction of an installation for refining oil fraction, and modernization of a catalytic converter at the 106,000 b/d Ferghana oil refinery.
Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov stressed that, in addition to Uzbekistan's favorable geographical location and large population, it has significant amounts of raw materials that need to be developed, including crude oil and natural gas.
"According to experts' estimation, prospected mineral deposits amount to some 1 billion tonnes of oil and 8,000 billion cu m of natural gas," Azimov said.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
