Russian Envoy Praises Joint Energy Projects in Uzbekistan

Excerpt from report by founded by Uzbekistan’s parliament and Cabinet, newspaper Narodnoye Slovo on 15 May

Russian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Farit Mukhametshin is answering the Narodnoye Slovo newspaper’s questions.

[Corespondent] Mr Ambassador, how do you assess the level of cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan in the fuel and energy spheres? Name the largest joint projects.

[Passage omitted: cooperation between the countries]

[Farit Mukhametshin] A total of 1,020m dollars is expected to be used in Uzbekistan in line with the targeted programme of investment projects for 2008, implemented with attraction of foreign direct investments and loans.

Out of the mentioned investments, Russian investors account for 436m dollars. They include such large projects as “Carrying out prospecting in Uzbekistan’s Ustyurt region” with [participation of] Gazprom and “Development of the Qandim group’s deposits, Hauzak” with [participation of] LUKOil. The Stroytransgaz open joint-stock company and Soyuzneftegaz [oil and gas company] are also successfully carrying out their investment activities in your country.

LUKOil and the Uzbekneftegaz [Uzbek oil and gas national holding company] put Hauzak gas deposit, located in [central] Buxoro Region, into operation in November last year. Participation of Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov and President of the LUKOil Open Joint-Stock Company Vagit Alekperov in the [deposit's] opening ceremony shows the importance of this project.

[Passage omitted: Mukhametshin speaks about Russian companies participating in Oil and Gas exhibition and its importance for bilateral cooperation]

Originally published by Narodnoye Slovo, Tashkent, in Russian 15 May 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.