Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In recent years, the Republic of Uzbekistan has been carrying out large-scale reforms in the socio-economic sphere, primarily through the implementation of large projects in industry with the involvement of foreign capital.

A separate place is occupied by the oil and gas industry as one of the basic sectors of the economy, providing energy and raw materials to the population and enterprises of the country.

JSC "Uzbekneftegaz", one of the flagships of the fuel and energy complex, provides an annual production of 34 billion cubic meters of natural gas (over 65% of the total production in the country) and the production of 1.5 million petroleum products.

Achieving the set objectives would have been impossible without attracting foreign loans and investments in the implementation of projects. In this direction, the company cooperates with many IFIs and investors. A special place is occupied by successful joint work with Gazprombank, which is one of the largest universal banks in Russia and occupies a leading position in the list of banks in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of equity capital. The Bank takes an active part in the implementation of key projects of the company.

The management of the bank, headed by the Chairman of the Management Board, Andrey Akimov, as well as the Deputy Chairmen of the Management Board, Aleksey Matveev and Aleksey Belous, pay special attention to the development of cooperation with enterprises of the Republic of Uzbekistan, including Uzbekneftegaz JSC, placing a key emphasis on the principles of reciprocity and mutually beneficial transactions.

As of today, within the framework of cooperation with Gazprombank, about US$1.1 billion of bank loans have been attracted to finance strategic investment projects.

Thus, under the Program to increase hydrocarbon production for 2017-2021 for the implementation of measures for drilling, workover of wells and the construction of technological facilities aimed at increasing the production of hydrocarbons, the bank has so far allocated loans in the amount of about US$675 million.

Since the beginning of the Program implementation, the construction of 296 wells has already been completed, the overhaul of 328 existing wells has been completed, a modular wellhead compressor unit has been put into operation at the Garbiy field, booster compressor stations Samantepe, Uchkyr, Alan, Zevardy, as well as a comprehensive gas treatment unit at the Arslan field, construction and installation work is underway on the Dengizkul and South Tandyrcha booster compressor stations.

The comprehensive measures of the Program will make it possible, by 2030, to increase the increase in natural gas production by 100.0 billion cubic meters and gas condensate up to 1.5 million tons.

In order to finance the project for the production of synthetic liquid fuel based on purified methane from the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex, which is the sixth such plant in the world, loans from Chinese, Russian and Korean banks were attracted in the amount of US$2.3 billion, including loans from Gazprombank - US$120 million. In addition, Gazprombank acted as a financial advisor: played an important role in choosing the financial model for the project, actively participated in negotiations with Chinese and Korean banks and in drafting loan agreements.

As part of the project to expand the production capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex, which has become a logical continuation of the GTL project, synthetic naphtha will be processed in the amount of 430 thousand tons for further production of 280 thousand tons of polyethylene, 100 thousand tons of polypropylene and 50 thousand tons of pyrolysis distillate.

According to preliminary estimates, the volume of capital investments in this project will exceed US$1.8 billion. Receipt of a loan of US$300 million from Gazprombank made it possible to provide advanced financing for the project and to start designing and placing orders for long-term equipment.

Cooperation with Gazprombank is multifaceted: in addition to financing key investment projects, the acquisition of high-tech equipment for the renovation and modernization of production, which is handled by a specialized department in the bank, headed by Vyacheslav Okhotin, a lot of work is also underway on corporate transformations, in particular, the organization of obtaining a corporate credit rating for JSC Uzbekneftegaz.

In this direction, together with a specialized division of the bank - the Rating Consulting Center under the leadership of Vice-President Yulia Trofimova - Uzbekneftegaz JSC has successfully completed the process of obtaining a debut credit rating from Fitch Ratings at BB-, the forecast is stable. This allowed Uzbekneftegaz JSC to become the first company in the real sector of the economy, corresponding to the sovereign rating of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Obtaining a corporate rating from the world’s leading rating agencies is one of the key stages in the history of any company, as it testifies to the level of transparency of the company, provides opportunities for entering the debt capital markets, quantitatively and qualitatively expanding the investor base, taking the first steps towards becoming a as an international company.

Currently, the issue of attracting loans from Gazprombank and VEB.RF under EXIAR insurance coverage in the amount of more than US$500 million is being considered to finance measures aimed at increasing natural gas production.

It should be noted that mutually beneficial cooperation between the two companies will continue to rapidly expand and develop. There are firm agreements on the proposal to finance geological and technical measures aimed at increasing the production of hydrocarbons, as well as other promising projects in the oil and gas industry.