Petronas Invest RM700mil in Uzbek

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian state oil firm Petronas will invest 700 million ringgit ($194.8 million) in energy projects in Uzbekistan within the next three years, a Malaysian newspaper reported on Sunday.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will announce the investment during a three-day working visit to the gas-rich Central Asian state beginning Sunday, the New Straits Times reported.

It gave no other details of the projects. A Petronas spokesman declined to comment. Petronas had signed in May a production-sharing contract covering the Urga, Kuanish and Akhchalak fields in the northern region of Ustyurt which Uzbekistan had earlier offered to Russia’s Gazprom.

It also sealed a heads of agreement pact for a gas-to-liquid project in northern Uzbekistan.