UZBEKISTAN TO STEP UP KOKDUMALAK FIELD FLOW

Jan. 30, 1995
Uzbekistan is ready to begin hiking liquids production in Kokdumalak oil and gas/condensate field astride the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border in the Amu-Darya basin. State owned Uzbekneftegas, field operator, will launch the more than $1 billion Kokdumalak capital spending program with a $200 million condensate recovery/gas reinjection project.

Uzbekistan is ready to begin hiking liquids production in Kokdumalak oil and gas/condensate field astride the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border in the Amu-Darya basin.

State owned Uzbekneftegas, field operator, will launch the more than $1 billion Kokdumalak capital spending program with a $200 million condensate recovery/gas reinjection project.

Uzbekneftegas plans to reinject produced gas into the reservoirs with four gas turbine driven compressors to be provided by Dresser-Rand, Olean, N.Y., a unit of Dresser Industries, Dallas. Another Dresser unit, M.W. Kellogg Co., Houston, holds a contract to provide project engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and start-up.

Nissho Iwai Corp. will supply goods and services from Japan.

When fully operational in 1996, the gas reinjection project is expected to boost Kokdumalak crude oil and condensate flow to about 90,000 b/d from 40,000 b/d. Kokdumalak oil and condensate production is expected to peak at about 130,000 b/d.

The field has been under development for the past 3 years.

Uzbekneftegas's overall program for Kokdumalak is expected to double liquids recovered from the field. Cumulative condensate recovery is expected to jump to about 489.1 million bbl from 175.2 million bbl.

FUNDING PRECEDENTS

Kellogg said the project is the first in Uzbekistan to obtain medium term funding through the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Exim bank) and the first cofinanced by Export-Import Bank of Japan (Jexim) and japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Exim bank has committed $50 million to fund the gas reinjection project and jexim $89 million, with the remaining funds to be provided by Uzbekistan.

Seventy percent of the funding obtained from Japan will help pay for U.S. services and equipment.

"The extensive use of Japanese financing for export of U.S. goods and services is a watershed development in U.S.-Japanese trade relations," said Donald C. Vaughn, Kellogg president and chief executive officer. "It's the making of economic history."

Kellogg has been working on the gas reinjection project since last August.

Kokdumalak field is half in Uzbekistan and half in Turkmenistan at the border south of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan reportedly has ceded full field development rights to Uzbekneftegas, but terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.

Kokdumalak produces from a series of Jurassic pinnacle reefs at a depth of about 3,000 m on the northern flank of the Amu-Darya basin. Pressures in the formation range as high as 7,400 psi.

Total Kokdumalak recoverable reserves are estimated at more than 13.6 billion bbl of oil equivalent, including 5.86 tcf of gas and about 1 billion bbl of liquids.

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