No go for Sinopec:Chinese company ends its interest in Uzbekistan
Sinopec Uzbek project is a non-starter
China’s Sinopec Corporation has decided not to proceed with an energy project in Uzbekistan, an Uzbek government source said.
Uzbek state energy company Uzbekneftegas said in 2005 Sinopec would invest $110 million to explore new deposits and revitalise stalled projects in the Ferghana valley in eastern Uzbekistan.
However a source told Reuters that Sinopec and Uzbekistan had done nothing to forward the project since then.
"Work was being done to develop the memorandum but the project has not been started," the source said. "They [Sinopec] have not been present here."
A Chinese embassy official in Tashkent confirmed this but declined to comment. Sinopec was unavailable for comment.
The government source said that Uzbekistan would instead focus on cooperation with another Chinese oil major, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Last year, a CNPC unit won a licence to explore oil and gas resources in Uzbekistan.