Uzbekistan Signs Pact with Enron

by Chris Woodyard
The Houston Chronicle
June 25, 1996

WASHINGTON - The president of Uzbekistan signed a deal Monday with Houston-based Enron Corp. that could lead to joint development of the central Asian nation's potentially rich natural gas fields. President Islam Karimov also inked an arrangement with Texaco to build a lubricant manufacturing plant in his nation and market products throughout the region. But the big winner on the Uzbek swing through America appeared to be a San Antonio firm that will share in a contract to convert more than 200,000 vehicles - nearly half the nation's automobiles - to run on natural gas. The Uzbek road show swept through Washington and heads to Houston on Thursday. Karimov indicated he is anxious to lure more foreign investment into his country. Uzbekistan , which became independent in the breakup of the Soviet Union, is a land-locked, mineral-rich nation near Afghanistan. "We are interested in seeing American business and American capital take its place in the Uzbeki market," Karimov told a receptive business audience Monday at the Overseas Private Investment Corp., a Washington-based international trade financing agency. With Enron, Karimov signed an agreement in which OPIC would arrange for $400 million in financing if the Houston-based company goes ahead with a joint venture with state-run gas company Uzbekneftegaz."

"The 15 fields we are looking at have 6 trillion feet of natural gas reserves," said an Enron spokesman, adding that the agreement "is still in the preliminary stages." For Texaco, Uzbekistan "is a good country to operate" and build a medium-size lubricant plant, said Vice President Patrick J. Lynch. But the most extensive deal is expected to be signed Wednesday when ExproFuels of San Antonio will join a Memphis firm and three Uzbek companies for the $500 million natural gas conversion program. For the program, designed to take advantage of the nation's extensive natural gas fields, ExproFuels will train up to 3 ,000 Uzbekis to convert cars and trucks to use natural gas. Since gasoline has to be imported and costs an average of $1.54 a gallon, motorists are expected to line up to convert their vehicles to use natural gas that sells for the energy equivalent of 85 cents a gallon. "They have got huge gas reserves and no gas market," said Tom Gose, president of the Exploration Co. subsidiary.

© Copyright 1996

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