TASHKENT (TCA) — Russian oil company LUKOIL on November 15 said it has raised USD 500 million in a 5-year unsecured loan at 3 month LIBOR+3.0% to finance the development of the Gissar group’s gas condensate fields in Uzbekistan. Soyuzneftegaz Vostok Limited, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of PJSC LUKOIL, is the borrower under the loan.
The loan is provided by the following consortium of commercial banks: Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Luxembourg S.A. (Luxembourg), Natixis (France), Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Japan), UniCredit S.p.A. (Italy), VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG (Germany), ING Bank N.V. (The Netherlands), AO Raiffeisenbank (Russia) and Raiffeisen Bank International AG (Austria).
The Production Sharing Agreement on the Gissar project was signed in January 2007. The first gas fields – Djarkuduk – Yangi Kyzylcha – was commissioned in December 2011 as a part of ‘Early Gas’ stage. The Gissar block reached its target production level of more than 1.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year in 2012. In March 2016, the field support base started its operations.
In 2017, under the ‘Full Development’ stage, the Russian oil company plans to launch Djarkuduk complex gas treatment unit with capacity of 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It will allow reaching the relevant target production level.
As of the end of 2015, proved hydrocarbon reserves amounted to 241 million barrels of oil equivalent (22 million barrels of gas condensate and 1.317 trillion cubic feet of gas); production was 9 million barrels of oil equivalent (106 thousand tons of gas condensate and 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas). All marketable gas is exported, the company said.
