In early April, the Russian Zarubezhneft announced that it had established a joint venture with Uzbekneftegaz to develop three sections in Uzbekistan: South Alamyshik, Khartoum and East Khartoum.

The head of Zarubezhneft Sergey Kudryashov, in an interview with Interfax, said that these deposits have been developed since the 1940s.

“After the analysis by our specialists, we saw an opportunity to increase production on them by three times – up to 200,000 tons by the end of the current year,” Kudryashov said.

According to him, for the company it is a pilot project in Uzbekistan, aimed at understanding how business is built in the country.

“This is our strategy to enter any country: first we go with a pilot project, build relationships, show ourselves, our competencies and capabilities, get effect, recoup investment with a plus, earn the trust of partners and, if possible, move on,” head of the Russian company said.

He also noted that shares in the joint venture with Uzbekneftegaz will be 50% to 50% and the company has practically started the work directly on these three fields.

According to Kudryashov, the most difficult was to develop geological-technical measures. The company plans to begin the actual work on the wells on July 1. Investments in the project, as the head of Zarubezhneft noted, are “not very big” – about $12 million.