UZBEKISTAN - Part 1 - The Prospects.Uzbekistan is fairly rich in oil, gas, coal and other natural resources. But its proven oil reserves Oil reserves refer to portions of oil in place that are claimed to be recoverable under economic constraints. Oil in the ground is not a "reserve" unless it is claimed to be economically recoverable, since as the oil is extracted, the cost of recovery increases incrementally are less than 600 million barrels, with the country in need of exploration on a massive scale by qualified foreign companies. The only country in the Commonwealth of Independent States Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), community of independent nations established by a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus, on Dec. 8, 1991, by the heads of state of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Between Dec. 8 and Dec. (CIS Cis (sĭs), same as Kish (1.) (1) (CompuServe Information Service) See CompuServe. (2) (Card Information S ) not to have suffered a big decline in oil and gas production since the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Uzbekistan's output of oil and condensates now averages about 142,000 b/d compared to 55,000 b/d in 1985 and a peak of 191,000 b/d in 1998 and 1999. Its production of natural gas has been rising steadily since the 1980s and in 2004 it is expected to reach a record of 60 BCM BCM Baylor College of Medicine BCM Become BCM Business Communications Manager (Nortel) BCM Broadcom Corporation BCM Business Continuity Management BCM Business Contact Manager (Microsoft) , compared to 32.3 BCM in 1985 and 57.5 BCM in 2003. For exploration to be stepped up and major oil reserves to be found, the government of Uzbekistan will have to improve its E&P regime and offer a generous production sharing agreement Production sharing agreements (PSAs) are used primarily to determine the share a private company will receive of the natural resources (usually oil) extracted from a particular country. (PSA (Professional Services Automation) An information system designed to organize, track and manage all opportunities, work, resources, costs, revenues and invoices to improve the productivity and efficiency of the workforce. ). The current E&P regime is not encouraging and the number of foreign oil companies operating in the country is very small (see Gas Market Trends of this week). The government needs more than $25 billion to be spent on the upstream petroleum sector by 2010, as fields producing oil and condensate condensate, matter in the form of a gas of atoms, molecules, or elementary particles that have been so chilled that their motion is virtually halted and as a consequence they lose their separate identities and merge into a single entity. are old and in steady decline. Otherwise, oil and condensate production would fall to about 50,000 b/d by 2010 and the country could then become a major oil importer. Uzbekistan's oil consumption has been falling steadily, from 265,000 b/d in 1989 to about 130,000 b/d. Uzbek oil consumption peaked at 275,000 b/d in 1988. Consumption of natural gas has risen from about 33.2 BCM/year (29.9m b/d of oil equivalent) in 1987 to 47.5 BCM in 2003. This year gas consumption could exceed 50 BCM. Peak consumption of natural gas occurred in 2002, when the country used 52.4 BCM. But there is a great deal of loss in the country's old natural gas and electric power distribution systems (see Downstream Trends of this week). Uzbekistan is the third largest natural gas producer in the CIS and one of the top ten gas-producing countries in the world. Since becoming independent, Uzbekistan has raised its gas production nearly 35%, from 42.8 BCM in 1992 to 57.7 BCM in 2002, with the output in 2003 having fallen to 57.481 BCM. Most gas production is concentrated in 12 deposits, particularly in fields such as Shurtan and Kokdumalak (see Part 2). |
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