Tashkent, 30 March 2012 — Today in Tashkent LUKOIL Overseas has signed an agreement with a international consortium of banks to raise a loan of up to $500 million on a limited recourse basis. This was done within the framework of implementing the PSA for the Kandym-Khauzak-Shady-Kungrad project in Uzbekistan.
The consortium includes Asian Development Bank, BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA, Credit Agricole CIB, Islamic Development Bank and Korean Development Bank. The loan, approved by the state authorities of the Republic of Uzbekistan, will be used to finance the investment program for the development of the Kandym group of fields and for a production increase in the Khauzak-Shady area. Such financing is the first large-scale loan to a private company operating in the fuel and energy industry of Uzbekistan.
The PSA on the Kandym-Khauzak-Shady-Kungrad project was signed in June of 2004 and came into effect in November of 2004. Three years later, the Khauzak-Shady group of gas fields was put into production. The start-up of the first phase of the Kandym group (Kuvachi-Alat field) is scheduled for 2014. The recoverable reserves of the project amount to 330 billion cubic meters of gas; the expected production rate is 11 billion cubic meters of gas per year. LUKOIL is the largest foreign investor in Uzbekistan.
[Lukoil Overseas press release]