Russian private oil company Lukoil disclosed preliminary production results for the first quarter of this year and reported an increase in oil production by 1.2% (to 21.6 million tons), compared to the same period last year, RBC reports.

Excluding the West Qurna-2 project, the average daily hydrocarbon production was 2.4 million barrels per day. This is 4.1% more than in the first quarter of 2018, and also 0.3% more than in the fourth quarter of last year.

“Production growth is mainly associated with the development of gas projects in Uzbekistan,” the company stressed.

Gas production, in turn, in the first quarter of this year amounted to 9 billion cubic meters, which is 12% more than in the first quarter a year earlier.

“Thanks to the launch of the second stage of the gas processing complex at the Kandym project, gas production in Uzbekistan in the first quarter of 2019 increased to 3.8 billion cubic meters (in the share of the Lukoil group), which is 33% more than in the first quarter of 2018,” the Russian oil company concluded.