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* The launch marks the beginning of long discussions, including on the price
* The nuclear will release gas for a more lucrative use
* Tashkent seeks to produce, refines more gas with Russian investments ( Adds details about other Russian-Uzbek energy projects)
By Olzhas Auyezov and Polina Nikolskaya
TASHKENT, Oct. 19 (Reuters) – Russia and Uzbekistan began preliminary work on Friday. the first Uzbek nuclear power plant, a project estimated at 11 billion dollars by Moscow.
The plant, which will be largely funded by a Russian low-rate loan, will allow Uzbekistan to use more of its natural gas for other purposes, such as the production or export of chemicals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev together pressed a symbolic button during a ceremony in a conference hall in Tashkent to mark the start of geological surveys to determine the location of the site.
Uzbekistan plans to sink its first concrete at the earliest in 2020 because of the complexity of the project. The 2.4 – gigawatt two – block plant is expected to start producing electricity in 2028.
Today, most of Uzbekistan 's electrical energy is generated by turbines. gas, but the country wants more value-added from its gas reserves.
ENERGY DEALS
The launching of the nuclear project was one of the highlights of Putin's official visit to Tashkent, during which the two sides also signed a number of other agreements, especially in the energy sector.
Russia, Gazprom, has signed a production sharing agreement for the Dzhel gas field, with the aim of producing about 300 million cubic meters a year, a small project from the region's point of view . LUKOIL signed a memorandum on exploration work and Russian businessman Andrei Filatov signed an agreement with a public company in Uzbekistan concerning a project to develop a gas field and build a product factory chemical.
According to Jurabek Mirzamahmudov, director of the Uzbek nuclear energy agency, UzAtom, a nuclear power plant producing as much energy as a nuclear power plant using modern gas turbines would consume more than 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
"This is a raw material for a petrochemical plant that can produce half a million tons of polymers," he told reporters this week.
Uzbekistan also exports gas by pipeline to Russia and China, and the latter in particular has steadily increased its energy purchases in Central Asia.
Mirzamahmudov said that it was possible that Uzbekistan adds two additional blocks to the factory in the future, doubling its capacity.
Up to now, however, the cost is not definitive even for the first two blocks. Moscow has estimated the amount at $ 11 billion, but Mirzamahmudov said talks on the subject would begin next year and Tashkent hoped the figure could be reduced. (Report by Olzhas Auyezov and Polina Nikolskaya)
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