Information provided on ownership of oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan

On February 12, the Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov and the chairman of Uzbekneftegaz JSC Mekhriddin Abdullayev met with journalists and representatives of the public, answered questions about the oil and gas sector, Kun.uz correspondent reports. 

According to the authorities, there are currently 295 oil and gas fields in the country. Uzbekneftegaz (state) owns 118 of them - 40%. The remaining 176 belong to joint ventures and foreign companies.

Uzbekneftegaz chairman Mekhriddin Abdullayev said that after 2017, mostly gas fields have been left at the company’s disposal. The oil fields were given to “Sanoat energetika guruhi” (Saneg; formerly Jizzakh Petroleum). Currently, this group has 104 oil fields at its disposal.

It is known that the list of companies owning oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan is as follows:

State enterprise:

ꞏ Uzbekneftegaz - 118 mines. 

Joint ventures:

ꞏ Natural Gas Stream (Uzbekneftegaz - 50%, Altmax Holding and Gas Project Development Central Asia - 50%) - 10;
ꞏ Uz-Kor Gas Chemical (Uzbekneftegaz - 50%, a consortium of Korean companies: KOGAS, Lotte Chemical Corporation, GSE&R - 50%) - 1 (Surgil field, one of the largest fields);
ꞏ Gissarneftgaz (Uzbekneftegaz - 55%, Gas Project Development Central Asia - 45%) - 8;
ꞏ AndijanPetro (Uzbekneftegaz - 50%, Zarubezhneft - 50%) - 3;
ꞏ UzMaloil – (Uzbekistan-Malaysia joint venture) – 1;
ꞏ Gazli Gas Storage (Uztransgaz - 40%, Forus - 40%) - 1. 

Foreign companies:

ꞏ Saneg – (former Jizzakh Petroleum; registered in Cyprus, Belvor Holding related to Bakhtiyor Fazilov – 98%, Gas Project Development Central Asia – 2%) – 105;
ꞏ Lukoil - 13;
ꞏ Gazprom - 2;
ꞏ Epsilon (registered in the USA; managed by Mirodil Jalolov, who at one time was CEO of Zeromax) – 18;
ꞏ Surkhan Gas Chemical (Altmax Holding - 75%, Gas Project Development Central Asia - 5%, Uzbekneftegaz - 20%) - 1 (the “Mustaqilligining 25 yilligi” field, which is considered one of the largest fields)
Petromaruz (registered in Great Britain) – 1;
ꞏ CNPC (China) – 13. 

It should be noted that the above list refers only to the number of mines, and the potential of these objects (the amount of reserves in them) differs significantly from each other.

It was reported that the number of oil and gas fields opened in Uzbekistan in 2019 reached 270, 11 of which were opened in 2017-2019.