Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a government meeting devoted to the results of geological exploration and production by UzbekNeftegaz. He underscored that the natural gas and oil production plan for 2017 was not fulfilled due to failure to achieve growth in reserves and that only 77% of planned drilling works were completed.

He noted that it is required in 2018 to increase the volume of natural gas reserves by 57 billion cubic meters and the oil and condensate reserves - by 3.6 million tons through discovery of new fields pursuant to the Geological Exploration Program.

This year, to ensure production of 63 Bcm of natural gas, 3 Mt of oil and condensate, it is necessary to complete the construction of 255 new wells and 26 new process facilities, and to perform workover of 76 wells.

UzbekNeftegaz is currently implementing US$ 2.756 billion worth of 24 projects such as the Jizzakh oil refinery, Phase II of the Kandym gas processing complex and development of the Kandym fields group, Uzbekistan GTL, exploration at “25 years of Independence” field in Surkhandarya and development of its feasibility study, with 9 out of these projects to be completed this year.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed to review, taking into account the national interests, the terms of all concluded production sharing agreements and joint ventures.

He pointed to the need to diversify logistics routes, identify transport corridors and tariffs, which guarantee cut costs of importing raw materials and exporting products, saving energy consumption and expanding of alternative energy sources.

He criticized the physical wear of the gas distribution system and losses in the gas delivery to end consumers. He instructed to focus on development of high and medium pressure gas distribution systems in cooperation with foreign companies, transferring of vehicles to gas, noting the importance of raising the culture of rational use of gas among consumers.

The tasks were defined for preparing Oil & Gas industry development concept until 2030, speed up the process of obtaining a credit rating by UzbekNeftegaz.