Russia’s Gazprom Gets Licence for Gas Prospecting in Kyrgyzstan

Text of report by Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS

Bishkek, 20 February: Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov has handed a licence on carrying out geological surveys in southern Kyrgyzstan over to Aleksey Miller, chairman of the board of directors of the Russian company Gazprom. The Kyrgyz prime minister said that it [licence] concerned two deposits, where, possibly, there were significant reserves of natural gas.

“The receiving of the licence is a very important step, which will become the beginning of another stage in our cooperation in Kyrgyzstan,” Miller said. He said that this would be “a serious project in terms of investment volumes”. In all, Gazprom is going to invest up to 300m dollars into the Kyrgyz economy.

The head of the Kyrgyz government also proposed the Gazprom head to take part in the privatization process of Kyrgyzgaz joint-stock company. “If the Russian partners show their interest here, we could come to an agreement,” Chudinov noted. During the talks, he also proposed Russia to take part in prospecting for oil deposits in Kyrgyzstan.

Originally published by ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0743 20 Feb 08.

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