Surhan Gas Chemical Operating Company, VEB.RF and Gazprombank have signed basic indicative financial terms for the implementation of the Mustakillikning 25 Yilligi (M-25) gas field exploration and development project in Uzbekistan, the VEB.RF press service said.
The document was signed by the Director General of Surhan Gas Chemical Operating Company Andrey Ignatov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprombank Alexey Belous and the Deputy Chairman of VEB.RF Daniil Algulyan. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Igor Shuvalov, Chairman of VEB.RF.
The project includes the construction of a gas processing plant and infrastructure facilities in the Surkhandarya province with the production, transportation and sale of natural gas.
The project’s cost is estimated at US$ 1.75 billion. Credit funds of Russian financial institutions have been determined in the amount of US$ 900 million, they will be used to finance the supply of Russian products and services. The total volume of investments to date is about US$ 477 million.
The M-25 project is being implemented by a consortium of international investors under a production sharing agreement entered into with Uzbekistan in April 2017. The project's shareholders are Altmax Holding, Uzbekneftegaz and Gas Project Development Central Asia. Surhan Gas Chemical Operating Company acts as the operator under the production sharing agreement.
The M-25 field is the largest undeveloped gas field in Uzbekistan so far. The gas reserves are estimated at over 150 billion cubic meters of raw gas. Most of the gas reserves have a high content of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Commercial gas will be produced at the acid gas removal units of the gas processing plant, which has a 5 BCM throughput capacity per year. The design and construction of the gas processing plant is carried out on the basis of licensed technologies for gas purification and sulfur production by Shell.
The field and the construction site of the gas processing plant are located 20 km from Boysun in the Surkhandarya province. The existing Shurtan-Sherabad gas main line and the railway line pass at a distance of 10 km from the GPP.
In December 2019, the project completed exploration and design of production wells; in 2020, drilling of production wells began in the Jurassic complex of the field. As part of the geological exploration program on the investment block in 2019-2020, 2D seismic work was carried out, and at the moment, an exploratory well is being drilled with the aim of a detailed geological study of promising gas-bearing areas and structures.
