 Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Kyung-hwan, right, talks with Uzbekistan First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Rustam Azimov at a restaurant in Tashkent Wednesday. Minister Choi, who visited Uzbekistan early this week, will take part in a bilateral investment conference between the two countries. / Courtesy of Ministry of Knowledge Economy |
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
TASHKENT ― A global consortium including Korean entities successfully found gas reserves in Uzbekistan, the first substantive achievement of Korean outfits that have avidly put forth efforts to unearth minerals here.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) said on Wednesday that the consortium composed of firms from Uzbekistan, Russia, China and Malaysia as well as Korea discovered natural gas around the Aral Sea.
A pair of Korean outfits of the Korea National Oil Corp., affiliated with the MKE, and POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steel producer, each has around a 10 percent stake in the gas exploration.
The two corporations would be able to claim a substantial part of the new-found gas reserves through 2043 April and the contract could be extended further. The details will be decided after its commercial development.
``We drilled deeper than three kilometers to pinpoint the location of gas over the past few months around the Aral Sea. We extracted a total of 500,000 cubic meters of natural gases as of June 1,'' an MKE official said.
``Through second-round works starting this August, we will be able to measure the precise amount of the reserves. As the Uzbek government promises full support for the scheme, the prospects are pretty good.''
Uzbekistan expects the reserves to have 65 million tons of natural gas but the MKE is more cautious in predicting the exact volume.
MKE Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who visited Uzbekistan earlier this week to take part in a bilateral investment conference between the two countries, said that the exploits would play a pivotal role in strengthening the two-way alliance.
``This is the first discovery in the Aral Sea where some claimed gas or oil would not exist. The gas would increase the commercial viability of the Surgil gas field project,'' Choi said.
Spearheaded by both the Uzbek government and Korean entities, the Surgil project is a landmark scheme of the former ― establishing large gas plants in the region with up to $4 billion investment.
Uzbekistan is also very proactive in attracting Korean technologies and funds to the central Asian country, which is rich in natural resources but has yet to develop them in a full-fledged manner.
In a keynote speech at the investment conference, Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Elyer Madjidovich Ganiev said the Uzbek government welcomes Korean firms' more vehement advancements into the nation and will not spare efforts to underpin them.
``We regard Korea as a reliable friend. We are ready to commission ambitious long-term projects with Korea, the potential-laden nation that is the No. 2 trade partner of Uzbekistan,'' Ganiev said.
``In addition, the trade volume between the two countries are increasing fast as shown by the year-on-year increase of 8.2 percent back in 2009. Things were similar in the first quarter but we think there remains room for further cooperation.''
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