Azernews.Az

Uzbekistan's state oil and gas company Uzbekneftegas has begun work on the project on the utilisation of associated gas in Qashqadaryo Province (South Uzbekistan) at a cost of 43.4 million dollars, a company representative told Trend news agency.

According to the representative, plants on the utilisation of associated gas with a total capacity of 450 million cubic meters per year will be constructed for the fields of North Shurtan, Garmiston, Kumchi and Shakarbulak.

The first plant with a capacity of 43 million cubic meters of gas per year will be put into operation in December this year.

It is planned to finish the project, which is financed by Uzbekneftegas's own resources, by the end of 2014.

This year Uzbekneftegas is going to start work on one more project on the utilisation of low pressure gas in a group of gas condensate fields in the same region in the South Kimachi, Kruk, West Kruk, North Urtabulak and Umid fields.

The project at a total cost of $77.8 million will enable 690 million cubic meters of natural gas per year to be produced. The implementation period is 2013 - 2014.

According to the information provided by the holding company, nowadays the percentage of utilised associated gas constitutes 60 percent on average and as low as 40 percent in a number of fields.

Production is most active in the Kokdumalak field constituting 7.7 billion cubic meters per year.

As reported previously, Uzbekneftegas is going to increase the percentage of associated gas to 95 percent of the total extracted amount by 2016.