OREANDA-NEWS. On February 08, 2007 LUKOIL Overseas (a wholly owned subsidiary of LUKOIL) has reached an agreement with SoyuzNefteGaz to acquire a controlling interest in a group of companies that includes SoyuzNefteGaz Vostok Limited, which is a party to the PSA for the fields in Southwest Gissar and Ustyurt Region in the Republic of Uzbekistan, reported the press-centre of LUKOIL Overseas.

There are 8 fields on the contract area with C1 reserves of about 100 billion cubic meters approved by the State Reserve Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The design volume of production approximates 3 billion cubic meters per year. The plan is to achieve this level in 4 years. Gas will be exported through Gazprom`s pipeline network.

PSA a party to which is SoyuzNefteGaz Vostok Limited was signed on January 23, 2007 for 36 years and came into effect on April 23, 2007. The contract area is operated by SNG Gissar Limited, operating company that makes part of the assets to be acquired. Investments required for implementation of the project will exceed 700 million dollars.

“Republic of Uzbekistan is one of the most important regions of international operations for LUKOIL and business expansion in this country fully meets long-term strategic goals of the company. We are satisfied with the fact the leadership of Uzbekistan gave a positive assessment of our activity in the country and approved our acquisition of the Gissar project”, said Vagit Alekperov, President of LUKOIL.

In this context Yuri Shafranik, Chairman of the Board of SoyuzNefteGaz, noted: “Volume of our investments in development of fields in Uzbekistan has already exceeded 70 million dollars. Participation of Russia`s largest oil and gas company having extensive international experience will ensure its successful implementation”.